Bonjour,
First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that later this week, everyone will have a good new year. This last week has been another pretty busy week with everything and we have stayed quite busy. The first week of the transfer is always a bit interesting because we are getting into the swing of everything. Elder Boehme is awesome and we really get along well with each other so it has worked out very well.
Since I emailed last week on Tuesday, I will start out this weeks update from Wednesday. Wednesday was pretty good and we had a couple of really awesome lessons and it was great for Elder Boehme to meet a couple of our investigators. We ended up having a rendez-vous with Serge, a fairly recent convert, that was really good. I am always so happy when we meet with him and he talks about how grateful he is to have the gospel in his life and how proud he is to be a Mormon. He says that everytime we see him and it's so inspiring. His love for the church is so strong and so sweet and humble. It's incredible. In the afternoon, one of our investigators (Alexandre) called us to see if we had anytime for him that afternoon that we could see him. We of course said yes and we went to his house for the first time. Every other time that we have seen him it has been somewhere out in the open but he allowed us to come to his home. It definitely showed that he trusts us but a big part of why we never went there before is because he was slightly embarrassed by the condition of his apartment. Alexandre is so incredible, but I must admit that I have not been in a dirtier or smellier apartment yet. It was quite sad to see that that is the way that he lives. We had a really great lesson and we fixed another rendez-vous for the next morning to teach him again and to bring a stop smoking program to help him stop smoking and drinking as well. They both are very big problems for him and he wants to be a good example for his children. After that we ended up contacting around for the rest of the evening before coming home.
On Thursday we met Alexandre in the morning and brought the stop smoking plan with us. He shared something with us for the first time that he had never told us before and it was really cool. He said that before Elder Keadle and I had stopped him on the street the first time, he had really been praying and pondering and meditating for help and direction and guidance in his life and then right as he was doing that then we stopped him on the street. He totally believes that that was a sign for him and that we were put in his path to help him and give him direction. It was really cool when he told us that and I really felt like we were instruments in the Lord's hands for Alexandre. After Alexandre, our day was full. We had a lot of rendez-vous scheduled and we were going to have to hurry everywhere. Well, as is usual, the four rendez-vous we had planned didn't work out. We ended up having a less active member call us and ask us if we were available for a rendez-vous so we went and met Hervé at the church and taught him. After Hervé we went to the house of a guy named Paul who is from Ghana and he had been taught by the missionaries in the past. We walked into Paul's apartment and it was a very nice apartment. It was in a not very good area of town but he definitely had quite the set up in his apartment. Not only that but it ended up being a lesson with 4 other people who ended up being at his house. It was a very interesting experience but was really good. There was also a young kid from Ghana there who really wanted to come to church on Sunday so we told him that we would pick him up and go to church with him. It was a pretty good day.
On Friday, Christmas Eve, in the morning we made something for Alexandre to help him quit smoking. We made "spiritual cigarettes" for him so that everytime he feels an urge to smoke he can pull one out and read a scriptural thought that will help him resist his urge. We were supposed to give those to him that afternoon but he texted us to say he ended up having commitments with his children. The rest of the day seemed to just be a lot of different things falling through until we had dinner over at the Conte family for Christmas Eve. It was really nice to be able to spend the evening with them and oh my did we have a lot of food. I had my first taste of Clams and they were surprisingly not too bad. After the evening with them, my companion and I practically rolled out because we were so full. But it was so delicious.
On Christmas, we woke up and we all had some Christmas presents to open so we did that and then my companion and I headed out to Aubagne where we spent the afternoon with the Bishop and his family and there was truly a miracle. It started snowing! Not very much at all, just a bunch of little flakes but it was still so incredible. After that, we headed back into Marseille and went to another families house so that we could use skype and talk with our families. It was nice to talk to everyone that I was able to.
On Sunday we had a number of people who were we going to get for church but unfortunately none of them ended up coming. At church we found out that the Soeurs were sick and so they didn't come to church. We had some rendez-vous fixed for that afternoon but none of them worked out but the same less active member (Hervé) called us and asked us if we were available so we went to the church and had a rendez-vous with him. He is a very interesting person and for some reason he just does not get along with my companion. He told Elder Boehme that he had a fake smile and shifty eyes. For some reason he really likes me but he thinks I am from Ireland and he never actually remembers my name. He calls me the Irish guy and I never want to correct him because I think it's kind of funny. Anyway, so starting with thet rendez-vous, I started not feeling so great. Well, about an hour later we got out of the metro and I ended up throwing up into a planter thing. I was feeling better and so we went to a less active members and taught her but by the end, I wasn't feeling so great. We decided to go home and on the metro I just started feeling absolutely terrible. Well, long story short, I ended up throwing up all over inside the metro. I would have been embarrassed at that moment but I just felt horrible. Needless to say, I cleared out the back end of the metro including the two Muslim teenagers in front of me who jumped over the seat. It was quite the adventure. The rest of the evening I stayed in bed. I feel a lot better now, thank goodness but my companion ended up getting it around 5 this morning and he is feeling better now but all day he has been kind of down from it.
This week has definitely been busy and full of a lot of different experiences. I am so grateful to be here and to be able to see miracles work in other peoples lives as well as my own. I hope that everyone is doing well and had a good Christmas and will have a good New Year. I love you all very much and thank you all for everything that you do.
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 27, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Week 22
Sorry this is a little late, but I'm enjoying a little vacation in Texas with my sister and her family. Since I wanted to be selfish you all had to suffer! Enough waiting:
Bonjour,
Well, to say that this last week was a full week would definitely be quite an understatement! First of all, to my surprise I am still in Marseille. I am very glad to still be here. Although, my companion, Elder Keadle, was transferred. So, this is my third transfer and my third companion. Haha, oh well. My new companion is Elder Boehme. He is from the US too and he is close to the end of his mission. He is super cool and I am very excited for the next six weeks or more that we will be able to work together.
This last week was so jam packed with so many crazy and interesting things. It was busy like none other! So I will start out with after preparation day. After my last email last week, we went to the train station where we met one of our investigators and we had a pretty good lesson with him and then we caught a train to go to Toulon so that we could do an exchange with those Elders. The train takes only about an hour to get to Toulon but by the time we get there and then got to the apartment, it was pretty much time for bed. On Tuesday, I was in Toulon with Elder Meservy who came into the mission the same time as I did. He is a really nice Elder, he just hasn't had very many opportunities to be in Toulon by himself as the "senior companion" in a sense so he was a little lost. Apparently the Sunday before, they had a girl come to church who is from New Zealand, she is less active and she moved to Toulon because her fiance is a rugby player for Toulon, which apparently is quite a good team from what I understand... I have no idea about rugby so I will take there word for it. Anyway so she randomly showed up at church and then she miraculously called Elder Meservy on Tuesday because her baby had been sick and she was asking if we could give him a blessing. This was pretty big because her fiance isn't necessarily anti-mormon, he just doesn't want to be converted or really preached to. So it was really cool that she called to ask if we would do that because he told her that she was able to. So we scheduled that for the afternoon and in the meantime we had a couple of appointments. The other appointments fell through so we decided to pass by a town hall because they do English classes there and someone who took classes there said that the teachers are always looking for people who can speak English to do conversations with the people. So we stopped by and the guy kind of reluctantly said that he would go ask the teachers so he asked one teacher and she said, "Well I guess we can do that instead of what we had planned. That works." Right after she announced it to the class (this is a class of a bunch of senior citizens) another teacher marched in and briskly asked us who we were and where we came from and then she started yelling at us because we couldn't just walk in like that and that we had to go through the proper ways and she continued to just be very rude about it. Elder Meservy was not very happy about the way she talking to us and he started arguing with her about it and she told us that we needed to leave and he just continued to argue. In the end, I had to grab Elder Meservy and take him out of the room because he was not leaving. Needless to say, we had a nice little discussion afterwards because obviously he was not happy that I pulled him out of the room. So we talked everything out and then went back into the administrative place to see how we could set up them coming back and helping like we probably should have done in the first place. After that bit of craziness, we headed over to the New Zealand family to give the baby a blessing and wow he must do quite well on the rugby team because they have quite a nice house and a nice car and motorcycle. So we talked to them for a while and he was very nice and he chatted with us. It was very good. He was completely relaxed and asked us questions. We taught a bit about blessings and the importance and in the end she decided that she would like a blessing. Which I kind of figured was more of the case from the beginning. So, we gave her a blessing and it was very nice and she definitely seemed to not be so worried. I think she is under a lot of stress as she sees what she knows she should be doing and following the path that she should be following and the path that she actually is following and I think that it had been causing her some grief. After the blessing, they drove us to the train station so that we could head back towards Marseille. I had not been feeling very good so once we got back into the apartment there were 6 of us there and I just went to bed a little early while everyone was chatting and such.
The next day, was a Zone meeting in Aix-en-Provence. The first half of the meeting was instruction and all of that good stuff and the second half was a Spectacle de Noël. So we all did some talents and things and it was a lot of fun. We all had a good time. Afterwards, we all went to a big area in Aix and did some Christmas Caroling and contacting. The rest of the evening and the next morning on Thursday, I was on an exchange with Elder Yang (one of the zone leaders) and we taught some really good lessons on Wednesday evening and then Thursday morning we did our studies and headed back to Marseille. On Thursday we had a little meeting with all of the companionships in Marseille and the Zone Leaders. The rest of the day we did major contacting and ended up getting a ton of contacts! We had been trying out some different ways to contact and to cover more ground and more people and apparently that day was a bit of the fruits of our labors I guess.
On Friday, we received our phone calls of where we were going for the next transfer and we were all very surprised that I would be staying and that Elder Keadle was leaving. It was totally unexpected. I was ok with it, it just was not at all what I was expecting. In the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with M. Ecoffard who we have been teaching for two transfers now but he hasn't really been progressing but at that rendez-vous, he promised us that he would be at church that Sunday. After him, we had a rendez-vous with a recent convert who is just absolutely awesome. He is a great guy, super nice and has such a strong testimony. That went really well as always. Besides those, the other rendez-vous that we scheduled kind of fizzled out a bit but it was still a pretty good and productive day.
On Saturday we did some contacting and such until our rendez-vous with a less active member (the one who was telling me about my future a few weeks ago... he was very glad that I was staying here by the way....) and then afterwards we stayed for the ward Christmas Party and the less active member stayed too.
Sunday, was another very interesting day. We had four investigators who we were planning on being at church. One of them we were going to meet at the metro stop before the church and then go with her to the building. She didn't show up and didn't answer her phone so we started to head towards the church when a very drunk bum started heckling us. He was saying plenty of not good things and actually grabbed our plaques and threw them into the street. Needless to say, it wasn't a good situation but everything turned out ok and we were fine and nothing was taken or anything. A member saw it happen and so word spread around the church that something had happened. After that, everything went really well. Two of our investigators showed up at church one of which was M. Ecoffard! This is the first time in the last two transfers that he has actually come to church! It was awesome. He said he really enjoyed it. At the end of church one of the coolest things ever happened. A man just randomly walked into the building and I happened to be in the foyer and he asked how much it would cost him for a Book of Mormon. I told him that it was completely free and then gave him one. He then asked where the reading and praying promise was, so I showed him the passage in Moroni 10 and then he asked me if I could mark it for him. He then asked if he could see the chapel. So I took him in there and asked about the Prophet and had me write down his name so that he could remember. He then continues to say, and you practice baptism by immersion right? I said yes, and then he asked if he was allowed to see the baptismal font!! We took him in there and showed him that and he continued to just ask question after question about temples about prayer about everything! After awhile he said, "I better let you go so I don't take all of your time." I asked him if there was a time maybe this next week that we could see him to answer some more of his questions. And he said, "Really, I don't know why I am here. I was out buying a Nativity for Christmas and I had a voice say to me, 'Go talk to the Mormons.' I have no idea why but I just had to come here. I don't want to set anything up but I want to take this and pray, I have never really prayed but I really feel like I need to and will you pray for me?" Elder Keadler and I were just taken about. It was miraculous! When the guy left, he grabbed every pass along card at the church and then asked how much he could pay for a Sunday School manual of the teachings of Joseph Smith the Prophet and of course we just handed it to him. I have no idea what will happen with him but I know that there is some reason that he just came into the church. I cannot wait to see what will unfold with him. I am super excited though! So after that, everything else was pretty normal. We had a couple rendez-vous and such and they went well but obviously nothing could quite compare with what happened earlier.
So that was basically my week. There were so many very interesting things that happened. It was a busy busy week. I hope that everyone is doing well and I hope that everyone will enjoy the holidays and enjoy each others company and the true importance of this time of year. I love you all very very much. Joyeux Noël!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Bonjour,
Well, to say that this last week was a full week would definitely be quite an understatement! First of all, to my surprise I am still in Marseille. I am very glad to still be here. Although, my companion, Elder Keadle, was transferred. So, this is my third transfer and my third companion. Haha, oh well. My new companion is Elder Boehme. He is from the US too and he is close to the end of his mission. He is super cool and I am very excited for the next six weeks or more that we will be able to work together.
This last week was so jam packed with so many crazy and interesting things. It was busy like none other! So I will start out with after preparation day. After my last email last week, we went to the train station where we met one of our investigators and we had a pretty good lesson with him and then we caught a train to go to Toulon so that we could do an exchange with those Elders. The train takes only about an hour to get to Toulon but by the time we get there and then got to the apartment, it was pretty much time for bed. On Tuesday, I was in Toulon with Elder Meservy who came into the mission the same time as I did. He is a really nice Elder, he just hasn't had very many opportunities to be in Toulon by himself as the "senior companion" in a sense so he was a little lost. Apparently the Sunday before, they had a girl come to church who is from New Zealand, she is less active and she moved to Toulon because her fiance is a rugby player for Toulon, which apparently is quite a good team from what I understand... I have no idea about rugby so I will take there word for it. Anyway so she randomly showed up at church and then she miraculously called Elder Meservy on Tuesday because her baby had been sick and she was asking if we could give him a blessing. This was pretty big because her fiance isn't necessarily anti-mormon, he just doesn't want to be converted or really preached to. So it was really cool that she called to ask if we would do that because he told her that she was able to. So we scheduled that for the afternoon and in the meantime we had a couple of appointments. The other appointments fell through so we decided to pass by a town hall because they do English classes there and someone who took classes there said that the teachers are always looking for people who can speak English to do conversations with the people. So we stopped by and the guy kind of reluctantly said that he would go ask the teachers so he asked one teacher and she said, "Well I guess we can do that instead of what we had planned. That works." Right after she announced it to the class (this is a class of a bunch of senior citizens) another teacher marched in and briskly asked us who we were and where we came from and then she started yelling at us because we couldn't just walk in like that and that we had to go through the proper ways and she continued to just be very rude about it. Elder Meservy was not very happy about the way she talking to us and he started arguing with her about it and she told us that we needed to leave and he just continued to argue. In the end, I had to grab Elder Meservy and take him out of the room because he was not leaving. Needless to say, we had a nice little discussion afterwards because obviously he was not happy that I pulled him out of the room. So we talked everything out and then went back into the administrative place to see how we could set up them coming back and helping like we probably should have done in the first place. After that bit of craziness, we headed over to the New Zealand family to give the baby a blessing and wow he must do quite well on the rugby team because they have quite a nice house and a nice car and motorcycle. So we talked to them for a while and he was very nice and he chatted with us. It was very good. He was completely relaxed and asked us questions. We taught a bit about blessings and the importance and in the end she decided that she would like a blessing. Which I kind of figured was more of the case from the beginning. So, we gave her a blessing and it was very nice and she definitely seemed to not be so worried. I think she is under a lot of stress as she sees what she knows she should be doing and following the path that she should be following and the path that she actually is following and I think that it had been causing her some grief. After the blessing, they drove us to the train station so that we could head back towards Marseille. I had not been feeling very good so once we got back into the apartment there were 6 of us there and I just went to bed a little early while everyone was chatting and such.
The next day, was a Zone meeting in Aix-en-Provence. The first half of the meeting was instruction and all of that good stuff and the second half was a Spectacle de Noël. So we all did some talents and things and it was a lot of fun. We all had a good time. Afterwards, we all went to a big area in Aix and did some Christmas Caroling and contacting. The rest of the evening and the next morning on Thursday, I was on an exchange with Elder Yang (one of the zone leaders) and we taught some really good lessons on Wednesday evening and then Thursday morning we did our studies and headed back to Marseille. On Thursday we had a little meeting with all of the companionships in Marseille and the Zone Leaders. The rest of the day we did major contacting and ended up getting a ton of contacts! We had been trying out some different ways to contact and to cover more ground and more people and apparently that day was a bit of the fruits of our labors I guess.
On Friday, we received our phone calls of where we were going for the next transfer and we were all very surprised that I would be staying and that Elder Keadle was leaving. It was totally unexpected. I was ok with it, it just was not at all what I was expecting. In the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with M. Ecoffard who we have been teaching for two transfers now but he hasn't really been progressing but at that rendez-vous, he promised us that he would be at church that Sunday. After him, we had a rendez-vous with a recent convert who is just absolutely awesome. He is a great guy, super nice and has such a strong testimony. That went really well as always. Besides those, the other rendez-vous that we scheduled kind of fizzled out a bit but it was still a pretty good and productive day.
On Saturday we did some contacting and such until our rendez-vous with a less active member (the one who was telling me about my future a few weeks ago... he was very glad that I was staying here by the way....) and then afterwards we stayed for the ward Christmas Party and the less active member stayed too.
Sunday, was another very interesting day. We had four investigators who we were planning on being at church. One of them we were going to meet at the metro stop before the church and then go with her to the building. She didn't show up and didn't answer her phone so we started to head towards the church when a very drunk bum started heckling us. He was saying plenty of not good things and actually grabbed our plaques and threw them into the street. Needless to say, it wasn't a good situation but everything turned out ok and we were fine and nothing was taken or anything. A member saw it happen and so word spread around the church that something had happened. After that, everything went really well. Two of our investigators showed up at church one of which was M. Ecoffard! This is the first time in the last two transfers that he has actually come to church! It was awesome. He said he really enjoyed it. At the end of church one of the coolest things ever happened. A man just randomly walked into the building and I happened to be in the foyer and he asked how much it would cost him for a Book of Mormon. I told him that it was completely free and then gave him one. He then asked where the reading and praying promise was, so I showed him the passage in Moroni 10 and then he asked me if I could mark it for him. He then asked if he could see the chapel. So I took him in there and asked about the Prophet and had me write down his name so that he could remember. He then continues to say, and you practice baptism by immersion right? I said yes, and then he asked if he was allowed to see the baptismal font!! We took him in there and showed him that and he continued to just ask question after question about temples about prayer about everything! After awhile he said, "I better let you go so I don't take all of your time." I asked him if there was a time maybe this next week that we could see him to answer some more of his questions. And he said, "Really, I don't know why I am here. I was out buying a Nativity for Christmas and I had a voice say to me, 'Go talk to the Mormons.' I have no idea why but I just had to come here. I don't want to set anything up but I want to take this and pray, I have never really prayed but I really feel like I need to and will you pray for me?" Elder Keadler and I were just taken about. It was miraculous! When the guy left, he grabbed every pass along card at the church and then asked how much he could pay for a Sunday School manual of the teachings of Joseph Smith the Prophet and of course we just handed it to him. I have no idea what will happen with him but I know that there is some reason that he just came into the church. I cannot wait to see what will unfold with him. I am super excited though! So after that, everything else was pretty normal. We had a couple rendez-vous and such and they went well but obviously nothing could quite compare with what happened earlier.
So that was basically my week. There were so many very interesting things that happened. It was a busy busy week. I hope that everyone is doing well and I hope that everyone will enjoy the holidays and enjoy each others company and the true importance of this time of year. I love you all very very much. Joyeux Noël!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 13, 2010
Week 21
Bonjour,
Well, I am now officially into the last week of my second transfer in France! I can honestly not believe how quickly it has gone by. Almost three months in France now and I have been out on my mission for almost five. Can you believe that? I sure cannot! The last week has been good. The normal ups and downs of missionary work but it definitely helps to maintain a positive attitude, particularly on the days when everything seems to fall through and no one wants to be friendly.
On Monday, after I sent out my email we had a lesson with our investigator Wilson who I had mentioned a bit last week and it went really well. Mostly we took the time to answer his questions and untangle some of his confusion. It was a great lesson and I was so excited when he said that he had been able to read in the Book of Mormon. We actually have another rendez-vous with him this evening. I am very excited for it. We teach him at the Train Station (I know it sounds kind of ghetto but train stations in France are pretty nice, the one in Marseille is quite large) so it is a bit noisy and there are a lot of people but it is still a very cool experience.
Tuesday we had a rendez-vous fall through in the afternoon and then we had one in the evening. It was with Francisca who I have talked about a couple other times. She is the little lady who we thought was drunk the first time we met her. Well she is from Cap Vert which is a group of islands off the western coast of Africa and so she speaks Portugese and French so we wanted to find someone who spoke Portugese. We asked around and it was perfect because our Ward Mission Leader happens to be from Cap Vert and speaks Portugese and he works right down by where she lives! So he said he could come with us. We went down there on time and waited for a bit and then called him to see if he would still be able to come. He said yes but that he would be late. So, we decided to start with Francisca and then when our member came then he would join us. Of course Francisca wasn't even home! So Elder Keadle and I did some contacting for about an hour until the Ward Mission Leader came and then we hoped that by that time Francisca would be there and thank goodness, she was there! It was such an incredible lesson. Frère Fidalgo shared his conversion story and testified about how important the gospel has been for him and his family and it was such a great lesson. Francisca and Frère Fidalgo even knew several people in common who were from Cap Vert. It was a great lesson and she even committed to coming to church on Sunday.
On Wednesday, we ended up eating lunch with a member and then our rendez-vous fell through until 7. Our rendez-vous was with a very interesting person named André. The first time that I met him was last transfer and he was completely drunk. At first he told us he was the police, and then he told us he was God, and then continued by reading our palms. It was a bit interesting. He was taught once last transfer but I was on an exchange so I wasn't there. This transfer he was in and out of the hospital for an injury so we had a difficult time scheduling anything. We finally were able to meet with him on Wednesday evening and it was a pretty good lesson. He has major smoking problems and my companion and I left his house definitely smelling like smoke but it was a good lesson about Christ and his sacrifice for us. I am not sure how far it will go with André but you never know when the Lord will soften someone's heart.
Thursday and Friday both started out as being packed days. Between the two days we had 8 rendez-vous scheduled with people. We were so stoked! Well.... in the end we were not able to meet with any of them. We were a bit bummed and even contacting on those two days was not the greatest. They were a couple of rough days. We had been walking for a couple hours just contacting without any success on Friday and then my companion said, "Ok, we are going to do this. You take this side of the road and I will take that side. We are going to walk all the way to the end and we are going to get a contact!" I was like, heck yes, let's do this! Haha Unfortunately my companion wasn't able to get anyone's contact information but I was. I was pretty stoked and then I chatted with another lady for a few minutes who was in town visiting her daughter and so I gave her a card with our number to give to her daughter. That was pretty cool and then right after we met back up Elder Keadler and I ran across someone who was a less active member. He was a member in Northern France but stopped going before moving here and so the church had no idea where he was. He was a very nice guy but I felt bad for him because he was a member and now he is completely Atheist. Thankfully we were able to get his number so hopefully we can keep in contact with him.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a meeting at the church and then two rendez-vous there. One with a member and then one with a less active member. They went well. We were supposed to have an investigator meet us there but we weren't able to get ahold of him, which was a bummer.
Sunday we were so excited because we had three investigators promise us that they would be at church. We had talked to them all on Saturday night and everything was confirmed. We were stoked! One of them was Francisca, who we met at her house and so we went to the church together. Another was Monsieur Ecoffard who was supposed to take the metro and meet us at the metro stop closest to the church but we called him in the morning and he did not receive permission from the nursing home he lives in to leave so he didn't come and then the other investigator was Alexandre who miraculously came to church two weeks ago but he told us on the way to church that he wouldn't be able to come either. We were a bit disappointed but very grateful that Francisca was there. Unfortunately, she had to leave after the first meeting because she had things she needed to take care of. We were a little bummed but grateful she still came and we have another rendez-vous with her this week. After that, it was a normal Sunday (definitely no excitement like last week) and then we went to Ward Council meeting (which took up a good portion of the afternoon). After that we just contacted until the evening when we had a dinner appointment with a member.
It has been a good week and I am sure this week will go by super fast. There is a lot planned and then with the possibility of getting transferred. Who knows. Well I hope that you all are doing well and that everyone is remembering what the true Christmas season is about. I love this time of year just because of the mood that seems to be in the air. I love you all and am very grateful for each and everyone of you. Have a wonderful week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Well, I am now officially into the last week of my second transfer in France! I can honestly not believe how quickly it has gone by. Almost three months in France now and I have been out on my mission for almost five. Can you believe that? I sure cannot! The last week has been good. The normal ups and downs of missionary work but it definitely helps to maintain a positive attitude, particularly on the days when everything seems to fall through and no one wants to be friendly.
On Monday, after I sent out my email we had a lesson with our investigator Wilson who I had mentioned a bit last week and it went really well. Mostly we took the time to answer his questions and untangle some of his confusion. It was a great lesson and I was so excited when he said that he had been able to read in the Book of Mormon. We actually have another rendez-vous with him this evening. I am very excited for it. We teach him at the Train Station (I know it sounds kind of ghetto but train stations in France are pretty nice, the one in Marseille is quite large) so it is a bit noisy and there are a lot of people but it is still a very cool experience.
Tuesday we had a rendez-vous fall through in the afternoon and then we had one in the evening. It was with Francisca who I have talked about a couple other times. She is the little lady who we thought was drunk the first time we met her. Well she is from Cap Vert which is a group of islands off the western coast of Africa and so she speaks Portugese and French so we wanted to find someone who spoke Portugese. We asked around and it was perfect because our Ward Mission Leader happens to be from Cap Vert and speaks Portugese and he works right down by where she lives! So he said he could come with us. We went down there on time and waited for a bit and then called him to see if he would still be able to come. He said yes but that he would be late. So, we decided to start with Francisca and then when our member came then he would join us. Of course Francisca wasn't even home! So Elder Keadle and I did some contacting for about an hour until the Ward Mission Leader came and then we hoped that by that time Francisca would be there and thank goodness, she was there! It was such an incredible lesson. Frère Fidalgo shared his conversion story and testified about how important the gospel has been for him and his family and it was such a great lesson. Francisca and Frère Fidalgo even knew several people in common who were from Cap Vert. It was a great lesson and she even committed to coming to church on Sunday.
On Wednesday, we ended up eating lunch with a member and then our rendez-vous fell through until 7. Our rendez-vous was with a very interesting person named André. The first time that I met him was last transfer and he was completely drunk. At first he told us he was the police, and then he told us he was God, and then continued by reading our palms. It was a bit interesting. He was taught once last transfer but I was on an exchange so I wasn't there. This transfer he was in and out of the hospital for an injury so we had a difficult time scheduling anything. We finally were able to meet with him on Wednesday evening and it was a pretty good lesson. He has major smoking problems and my companion and I left his house definitely smelling like smoke but it was a good lesson about Christ and his sacrifice for us. I am not sure how far it will go with André but you never know when the Lord will soften someone's heart.
Thursday and Friday both started out as being packed days. Between the two days we had 8 rendez-vous scheduled with people. We were so stoked! Well.... in the end we were not able to meet with any of them. We were a bit bummed and even contacting on those two days was not the greatest. They were a couple of rough days. We had been walking for a couple hours just contacting without any success on Friday and then my companion said, "Ok, we are going to do this. You take this side of the road and I will take that side. We are going to walk all the way to the end and we are going to get a contact!" I was like, heck yes, let's do this! Haha Unfortunately my companion wasn't able to get anyone's contact information but I was. I was pretty stoked and then I chatted with another lady for a few minutes who was in town visiting her daughter and so I gave her a card with our number to give to her daughter. That was pretty cool and then right after we met back up Elder Keadler and I ran across someone who was a less active member. He was a member in Northern France but stopped going before moving here and so the church had no idea where he was. He was a very nice guy but I felt bad for him because he was a member and now he is completely Atheist. Thankfully we were able to get his number so hopefully we can keep in contact with him.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a meeting at the church and then two rendez-vous there. One with a member and then one with a less active member. They went well. We were supposed to have an investigator meet us there but we weren't able to get ahold of him, which was a bummer.
Sunday we were so excited because we had three investigators promise us that they would be at church. We had talked to them all on Saturday night and everything was confirmed. We were stoked! One of them was Francisca, who we met at her house and so we went to the church together. Another was Monsieur Ecoffard who was supposed to take the metro and meet us at the metro stop closest to the church but we called him in the morning and he did not receive permission from the nursing home he lives in to leave so he didn't come and then the other investigator was Alexandre who miraculously came to church two weeks ago but he told us on the way to church that he wouldn't be able to come either. We were a bit disappointed but very grateful that Francisca was there. Unfortunately, she had to leave after the first meeting because she had things she needed to take care of. We were a little bummed but grateful she still came and we have another rendez-vous with her this week. After that, it was a normal Sunday (definitely no excitement like last week) and then we went to Ward Council meeting (which took up a good portion of the afternoon). After that we just contacted until the evening when we had a dinner appointment with a member.
It has been a good week and I am sure this week will go by super fast. There is a lot planned and then with the possibility of getting transferred. Who knows. Well I hope that you all are doing well and that everyone is remembering what the true Christmas season is about. I love this time of year just because of the mood that seems to be in the air. I love you all and am very grateful for each and everyone of you. Have a wonderful week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 6, 2010
Week 20
Hello,
I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is moving along as usual. The last week here has been very interesting for many reasons. There were definitely some disappointments, some tough days, but some very good little miracles. The week is a little bit shorter since our preparation day last week was on Tuesday rather than Monday so it cut into things a little bit but it definitely made the week go quickly.
On Wednesday we had an exchange with the Elders of Toulon so I stayed in Marseille with Elder Cunningham and my companion, Elder Keadle, went to Toulon with Elder Meservy. Not only that, but the Blue's Conference for the new missionaries was on Wednesday, so Elder Bowen's companion went to that so we were on an exchange and in a tri companionship that day. It was a bit crazy. Our schedule was full of rendez-vous and we were hurrying to get everywhere. Unfortunately.... As has been the norm the last little while, all of the rendez-vous fell through except the last one which, thankfully, happened to be one of the investigators of Elder Keadle and me. He is a very nice guy. I can't say that this is his time to be ready for the gospel but I guess you never really know and we have another appointment with him tonight so hopefully everything will go well. So that was, in essence, the day on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had our District Meeting, which was great. It really pumped us all up to work harder and do our best to get contacts and rendez-vous. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was a bit rough. Our appointments fell through and I am not sure if it was the weather (which was very windy and cold last week) or what but people were just frigid in personality. No one wanted to stop, no one wanted to talk with us another time. We tried a technique that Elder Teixera, who was at the Zone meeting the time before last, taught us about contacting with the Book of Mormon and keeping it short and simple and quick and even splitting up a little bit so that me and my companion can both talk to people so it doubles the amount of people we talk to. Well, we tried doing just that. Lets say that it wasn't the most successful thing. I went on one side of the road and my companion was on the other and we just walked to the next intersection and talked with every person we came across and..... absolutely nothing. No one would stop, no one would listen, one guy started yelling at me about how we are a "sect" and all this stuff and then just ran away. I don't know what it was but the people were just not in a good mood. The thing that is interesting is that the missionaries in Nice have had tons of success with the technique and the our district it hasn't worked out too well. The other Elders in the apartment have been trying it too and they said that it has been terrible. People will take one look at the Book of Mormon and seriously bolt away. It's kind of interesting. So hopefully this week will be better. I am definitely hopeful because as far as contacting goes, this week was definitely not the best.
On Friday, we had some rendez-vous fixed that didn't work out but we did end up having one in the afternoon with the guy who came to church the Sunday before. His name is Alexandre and he is super awesome. He is totally in accordance with everything and really believes in a lot. He is a funny guy and has definitely gone through a lot since he got a divorce from his wife. That was really difficult for him and now he drinks a lot and smokes more but he really wants to quit. Which were are definitely glad that he has a desire. It was an awesome lesson and he was very excited to come to church again this Sunday. After that, our next Rendez-vous was with this little woman who is from Cape Vert and Portugese speaking who we had a couple lessons with last week and she is so awesome! We kind of thought she was drunk the first time we met her but nope... that is just her personality! She is hilarious! She wasn't able to come to church this week but she is really wants to come this next week. She is very believing in everything and very interested. Our next rendez-vous with her (tomorrow), our ward mission leader is coming because he is actually from the same country as her and speaks Portugese, so I am super excited for that.
Saturday was a bit of a flop as far as appointments go and everything because they fell through except we did have a great rendez-vous with Serge who is a recent convert as of July. He is such a nice guy and has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He has a lot of struggles with his health and finances and a lot of different things but he is so humble and so grateful for everything. He told us about how much he wants to go to Salt Lake and see everything there, he called it the Vatican of Mormonism (haha he was Catholic before) and how he would love to one day serve a mission. I always love when we go and teach him.
Sunday we were so excited because we had 4 people who all said that they were going to be at church.... but none of them came. They all flaked out on us and, needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. It was a rough week for Marseille, none of the companionships here had anyone come to church. Everyone was a little bummed. But that is not to say that there wasn't any excitement at church. Everything was going along as usual until Sacrament Meeting (that is the last of the three meetings here in France). There was some guy who walked in off from the street not too long after sacrament meeting had started and he was obviously homeless but he was also drunk. He did not speak any French and he was from England and he definitely made quite a clamour. He started out by just being loud and saying random things but then in the middle of someone's testimony he raised his hand to ask a question and of course the lady just kept giving her testimony and then he just yelled out "My mother's a Mormon and my Sister's a Mormon and my Mother has a heart condition will you pray for her and will someone let me call her." Everyone just kind of continued and ignored him and one of the member's in the ward came over and was talking to him and said I have a phone you can use, lets go in the hallway and call your mom and everything will be ok. Well the guy didn't have her number and more than anything he just was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. He was sitting behind me and all of a sudden all of these leaders from the ward just surrounded him and I had no idea what happened and the lady he was sitting next to had moved. He was kind of freaked out and was like what is this the church secret service... yes, I left out the vulgarities but he refused to leave the chapel. He calmed down a bit and one of the members, who is actually Irish, came over and was talking to him just calming him down and such and he was better the rest of the meeting. He would have random little occasional outbursts but a lot better. Meanwhile, people are still bearing testimonies and the last testimony comes up and it was the women who had been sitting next to him. She bore a beautiful testimony about how we should not judge others and how we should not be so quick to react and to jump to conclusions. Apparently, the big hub ub when all the leaders ran over was because the drunk guy actually saw that the Sister sitting next to him had a scar on her wrist and he said I will pray for you that it will get better and he put his hand on the scar as if her were "healing" it. When some of the people had seen that happen, that's when they rushed over to "save" her. Anyway, I think that the whole thing was a good lesson for a lot of people about charity, patience, prejudgements, and really seeing people as God sees them. It was a very very interesting Sacrament Meeting to say the least. Easily the most exciting and bizarre I have ever had. The rest of the day was not quite as thrilling as the morning but it was still good.
It has been a very interesting week with a lot of ups and downs but in the end I look at all of the little miracles and see how truly blessed we have been throughout the week regardless of the attitudes of others. And then, with the experience on Sunday, it really set the tone of how we should look at others and how each of us truly is un enfant de Dieu (a child of God). I hope that everyone is doing well and can take each day and see the small miracles and look at others as God looks at us: with love, respect, and appreciation for each person. I love you all very much and hope to hear from you soon. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is moving along as usual. The last week here has been very interesting for many reasons. There were definitely some disappointments, some tough days, but some very good little miracles. The week is a little bit shorter since our preparation day last week was on Tuesday rather than Monday so it cut into things a little bit but it definitely made the week go quickly.
On Wednesday we had an exchange with the Elders of Toulon so I stayed in Marseille with Elder Cunningham and my companion, Elder Keadle, went to Toulon with Elder Meservy. Not only that, but the Blue's Conference for the new missionaries was on Wednesday, so Elder Bowen's companion went to that so we were on an exchange and in a tri companionship that day. It was a bit crazy. Our schedule was full of rendez-vous and we were hurrying to get everywhere. Unfortunately.... As has been the norm the last little while, all of the rendez-vous fell through except the last one which, thankfully, happened to be one of the investigators of Elder Keadle and me. He is a very nice guy. I can't say that this is his time to be ready for the gospel but I guess you never really know and we have another appointment with him tonight so hopefully everything will go well. So that was, in essence, the day on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had our District Meeting, which was great. It really pumped us all up to work harder and do our best to get contacts and rendez-vous. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was a bit rough. Our appointments fell through and I am not sure if it was the weather (which was very windy and cold last week) or what but people were just frigid in personality. No one wanted to stop, no one wanted to talk with us another time. We tried a technique that Elder Teixera, who was at the Zone meeting the time before last, taught us about contacting with the Book of Mormon and keeping it short and simple and quick and even splitting up a little bit so that me and my companion can both talk to people so it doubles the amount of people we talk to. Well, we tried doing just that. Lets say that it wasn't the most successful thing. I went on one side of the road and my companion was on the other and we just walked to the next intersection and talked with every person we came across and..... absolutely nothing. No one would stop, no one would listen, one guy started yelling at me about how we are a "sect" and all this stuff and then just ran away. I don't know what it was but the people were just not in a good mood. The thing that is interesting is that the missionaries in Nice have had tons of success with the technique and the our district it hasn't worked out too well. The other Elders in the apartment have been trying it too and they said that it has been terrible. People will take one look at the Book of Mormon and seriously bolt away. It's kind of interesting. So hopefully this week will be better. I am definitely hopeful because as far as contacting goes, this week was definitely not the best.
On Friday, we had some rendez-vous fixed that didn't work out but we did end up having one in the afternoon with the guy who came to church the Sunday before. His name is Alexandre and he is super awesome. He is totally in accordance with everything and really believes in a lot. He is a funny guy and has definitely gone through a lot since he got a divorce from his wife. That was really difficult for him and now he drinks a lot and smokes more but he really wants to quit. Which were are definitely glad that he has a desire. It was an awesome lesson and he was very excited to come to church again this Sunday. After that, our next Rendez-vous was with this little woman who is from Cape Vert and Portugese speaking who we had a couple lessons with last week and she is so awesome! We kind of thought she was drunk the first time we met her but nope... that is just her personality! She is hilarious! She wasn't able to come to church this week but she is really wants to come this next week. She is very believing in everything and very interested. Our next rendez-vous with her (tomorrow), our ward mission leader is coming because he is actually from the same country as her and speaks Portugese, so I am super excited for that.
Saturday was a bit of a flop as far as appointments go and everything because they fell through except we did have a great rendez-vous with Serge who is a recent convert as of July. He is such a nice guy and has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He has a lot of struggles with his health and finances and a lot of different things but he is so humble and so grateful for everything. He told us about how much he wants to go to Salt Lake and see everything there, he called it the Vatican of Mormonism (haha he was Catholic before) and how he would love to one day serve a mission. I always love when we go and teach him.
Sunday we were so excited because we had 4 people who all said that they were going to be at church.... but none of them came. They all flaked out on us and, needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. It was a rough week for Marseille, none of the companionships here had anyone come to church. Everyone was a little bummed. But that is not to say that there wasn't any excitement at church. Everything was going along as usual until Sacrament Meeting (that is the last of the three meetings here in France). There was some guy who walked in off from the street not too long after sacrament meeting had started and he was obviously homeless but he was also drunk. He did not speak any French and he was from England and he definitely made quite a clamour. He started out by just being loud and saying random things but then in the middle of someone's testimony he raised his hand to ask a question and of course the lady just kept giving her testimony and then he just yelled out "My mother's a Mormon and my Sister's a Mormon and my Mother has a heart condition will you pray for her and will someone let me call her." Everyone just kind of continued and ignored him and one of the member's in the ward came over and was talking to him and said I have a phone you can use, lets go in the hallway and call your mom and everything will be ok. Well the guy didn't have her number and more than anything he just was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. He was sitting behind me and all of a sudden all of these leaders from the ward just surrounded him and I had no idea what happened and the lady he was sitting next to had moved. He was kind of freaked out and was like what is this the church secret service... yes, I left out the vulgarities but he refused to leave the chapel. He calmed down a bit and one of the members, who is actually Irish, came over and was talking to him just calming him down and such and he was better the rest of the meeting. He would have random little occasional outbursts but a lot better. Meanwhile, people are still bearing testimonies and the last testimony comes up and it was the women who had been sitting next to him. She bore a beautiful testimony about how we should not judge others and how we should not be so quick to react and to jump to conclusions. Apparently, the big hub ub when all the leaders ran over was because the drunk guy actually saw that the Sister sitting next to him had a scar on her wrist and he said I will pray for you that it will get better and he put his hand on the scar as if her were "healing" it. When some of the people had seen that happen, that's when they rushed over to "save" her. Anyway, I think that the whole thing was a good lesson for a lot of people about charity, patience, prejudgements, and really seeing people as God sees them. It was a very very interesting Sacrament Meeting to say the least. Easily the most exciting and bizarre I have ever had. The rest of the day was not quite as thrilling as the morning but it was still good.
It has been a very interesting week with a lot of ups and downs but in the end I look at all of the little miracles and see how truly blessed we have been throughout the week regardless of the attitudes of others. And then, with the experience on Sunday, it really set the tone of how we should look at others and how each of us truly is un enfant de Dieu (a child of God). I hope that everyone is doing well and can take each day and see the small miracles and look at others as God looks at us: with love, respect, and appreciation for each person. I love you all very much and hope to hear from you soon. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Week 19
Bonjour!
I truly hope that everyone is doing well and that everything is going well. Everything is still going very well here and the work continues. This has been a good week, a bit interesting with some things but it has still been quite good. The weather really dropped off the last little bit so I have definitely been wearing my jacket and sweaters and gloves and scarves. Haha, I am definitely from Arizona. It wouldn't be so bad with the cold but there is a very specific wind here that is very well known in Marseille called the Minstrel and it just goes through everything. I can be all bundled up but the second that the wind blows through, I might as well be wearing shorts and a t-shirt! It's not terrible, I just pray that we don't have a hard rain with it anytime soon. Yikes! But everything is still going well and I am loving the South of France.
As far as our week goes with lessons and such, it has been another difficult week with fixing appointments with people who will actually keep those appointments. On Tuesday we taught someone that we have had a few rendez-vous with. He is very nice, he says that he is not believing but he is from Algeria and so there is definitely a lot of Muslim background. So that is definitely challenging but he is a good guy and is willing to listen and read so we will see where it goes.
On Wednesday, I was on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders in Aix-en-Provence and that was a lot of fun. We found a lot of contacts and taught a girl from Japan in English and it was incredible! She has depression problems and a lot of struggles but she was so open and at the end she said, "I don't know what it is but I really like talking to you two." It was great and we fixed another rendez-vous with her for later in the week. I was a bit bummed that I wasn't going to be able to teach her too but it's ok. Afterwards, we had a rendez-vous in English with a girl from Vietnam who has a baptismal date fixed. She was so nice and has such a sweet spirit and love of Christ. It was a great rendez-vous. After that, we had taught English Class and that was a lot of fun. We talked about Thanksgiving and different cultural things and it was really cool. (If you didn't already guess it, there are a lot of Asians in Aix. It's a college town and there are a lot of foreigners, particularly Asian ones. In fact, there are three Chinese speaking Elders in Aix.) After English Class, we went to a little town outside of the main city of Aix (about thirty minutes by car) and we taught a member couple in the ward. They are recent converts and still having struggles to stop smoking. The husband asked for a blessing to help and he asked me to give it! I don't know why people always ask me to do it when they know that I don't speak French that well. Oh well, I guess it gives me practice. It was a really neat experience though and I am grateful I was able to do it. After that lesson, we went and taught a mom who is active and her son who is less active because he is with his dad on Sundays so he can't come to church. All in all, it was a really great day. There were so many small miracles and little differences that we were able make in other people's lives. It was amazing.
Thursday, we re-exchanged and I went back to Marseille in the morning. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, Elder Keadler and I, the other companionship and the Soeur missionaries in Marseille all got together and bought pizza and had a little mini Thanksgiving feast in honor of the day. Elder Bowen's French companion didn't fully understand but he appreciated the pizza. Haha It is funny with a Frenchman in our apartment. Especially since, when we do speak English, he doesn't understand very much at all. He is a great guy and it definitely helps my French. The rest of the day was fairly good. It was quite a cold day and unfortunately all of our appointments fell through.
Friday was very chilly again and we only ended up having one rendez-vous that actually worked out. We taught a recent convert who we have taught multiple times. He is a great guy and has such a sweet spirit and love of the gospel. He still has some struggles that he is working through but he has been coming to church almost every Sunday and he loves it. I know that he can overcome his trials that he is having right now and he will come out even stronger.
Saturday we had out soccer game with the members which was fun but I was freezing my butt off! Haha but we had a good time. Afterwards we taught a less active member who is very very interesting. I had taught him one time when I was with Elder Mayer and he got some odd kind of attachment to me. That next Sunday he actually came to church and then he wanted my email so that he could email me and then gave me his so I could email him too. I didn't think too much about it until I realized he didn't ask Elder Mayer or any of the other missionaries and then I kind of forgot because we didn't teach him again that transfer. Well a couple weeks ago, he called because he wanted to meet with us and so we had a nice rendez-vous and then again this last Saturday he called again wanting a rendez-vous the same day and he was very adamant about asking if "The Irish Elder" would be there... yes yes, he thinks I am Irish. I never even said that to him and I definitely don't have an Irish accent but he still thinks that I am. I haven't managed to correct him because I think that it is kind of funny. Anyway, so the rendez-vous went well and it went way too long because he just talks and talks and there is no way of stopping him. So we got done with the appointment and then he specifically wanted to talk to me because there was something he needed to tell me. I was a bit weired out but thought, ok that's fine. So he begins to tell me about how after my mission I need to make sure that I follow the good path and that he has these feelings that I might fall away and then he continued to tell me about a wife that I will have and three kids and just a lot of bizarre stuff. To be completely honest, I really wish that I could have understood everything because he talked to me for 20 minutes! It was a little interesting to say the least. When he finished he told me how he gets these feelings and how he needs to tell the people that they are about so that they can know how take his advice. He said that he is psychic but that this just happens sometimes. The whole situation was just very peculiar. He is a nice guy and I use to think that he was completely normal but now... I am not so positive. After him, we had another rendez-vous a little bit later with a little lady from Portugal who, when we taught her was very drunk. She was very very nice and receptive and willing to let us come back and talk some more but she was definitely a bit tipsy. She would randomly giggle about things. Haha it was pretty funny. But she was very nice and we actually have another rendez-vous with her tonight so I hope that it goes well.
Sunday we had someone come to church. We were so excited! He was someone who we contacted on the street a while ago and we had been trying to fix appointments with him but they never worked out, but he showed up at church and he loved it! Every week our Ward Mission Leader teachs a class during Sunday School for our investigators and the whole time our investigator was taking notes because he loved it so much! We set up a rendez-vous with him for Thursday this week and he said he will definitely be a church next week. We are so excited! After that we had some appointments not work out and in the evening we went with the Soeurs to give a blessing to one of thier investigators who had an epileptic attack during one of their appointments a week ago so she wanted a blessing. I did the annointing this time and my companion gave the blessing and it was really really good.
So, yesterday (monday) is normally my preparation day but we had a Zone meeting in Aix and interviews with President Carter so we got today as our Preparation Day. The meeting was really good and then afterwards there is a member in the ward who is American and is actually playing Basketball professionally for a team here so he invited us to have pizza with him. It was so nice. It was Dominos! I can't tell you how much I missed American Pizza! It was delicious.
So that has been my week. As usual, there were busy days and then slow days but it was still a very good week. I can't believe that I am already half way through my second transfer in France! How weird is that?? It has been four months since I left AZ. Weird! It has gone by very fast. I hope that everyone is doing well and that you know how grateful I am for you and how much I love you. Thank you all so much for everything that you do! Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I truly hope that everyone is doing well and that everything is going well. Everything is still going very well here and the work continues. This has been a good week, a bit interesting with some things but it has still been quite good. The weather really dropped off the last little bit so I have definitely been wearing my jacket and sweaters and gloves and scarves. Haha, I am definitely from Arizona. It wouldn't be so bad with the cold but there is a very specific wind here that is very well known in Marseille called the Minstrel and it just goes through everything. I can be all bundled up but the second that the wind blows through, I might as well be wearing shorts and a t-shirt! It's not terrible, I just pray that we don't have a hard rain with it anytime soon. Yikes! But everything is still going well and I am loving the South of France.
As far as our week goes with lessons and such, it has been another difficult week with fixing appointments with people who will actually keep those appointments. On Tuesday we taught someone that we have had a few rendez-vous with. He is very nice, he says that he is not believing but he is from Algeria and so there is definitely a lot of Muslim background. So that is definitely challenging but he is a good guy and is willing to listen and read so we will see where it goes.
On Wednesday, I was on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders in Aix-en-Provence and that was a lot of fun. We found a lot of contacts and taught a girl from Japan in English and it was incredible! She has depression problems and a lot of struggles but she was so open and at the end she said, "I don't know what it is but I really like talking to you two." It was great and we fixed another rendez-vous with her for later in the week. I was a bit bummed that I wasn't going to be able to teach her too but it's ok. Afterwards, we had a rendez-vous in English with a girl from Vietnam who has a baptismal date fixed. She was so nice and has such a sweet spirit and love of Christ. It was a great rendez-vous. After that, we had taught English Class and that was a lot of fun. We talked about Thanksgiving and different cultural things and it was really cool. (If you didn't already guess it, there are a lot of Asians in Aix. It's a college town and there are a lot of foreigners, particularly Asian ones. In fact, there are three Chinese speaking Elders in Aix.) After English Class, we went to a little town outside of the main city of Aix (about thirty minutes by car) and we taught a member couple in the ward. They are recent converts and still having struggles to stop smoking. The husband asked for a blessing to help and he asked me to give it! I don't know why people always ask me to do it when they know that I don't speak French that well. Oh well, I guess it gives me practice. It was a really neat experience though and I am grateful I was able to do it. After that lesson, we went and taught a mom who is active and her son who is less active because he is with his dad on Sundays so he can't come to church. All in all, it was a really great day. There were so many small miracles and little differences that we were able make in other people's lives. It was amazing.
Thursday, we re-exchanged and I went back to Marseille in the morning. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, Elder Keadler and I, the other companionship and the Soeur missionaries in Marseille all got together and bought pizza and had a little mini Thanksgiving feast in honor of the day. Elder Bowen's French companion didn't fully understand but he appreciated the pizza. Haha It is funny with a Frenchman in our apartment. Especially since, when we do speak English, he doesn't understand very much at all. He is a great guy and it definitely helps my French. The rest of the day was fairly good. It was quite a cold day and unfortunately all of our appointments fell through.
Friday was very chilly again and we only ended up having one rendez-vous that actually worked out. We taught a recent convert who we have taught multiple times. He is a great guy and has such a sweet spirit and love of the gospel. He still has some struggles that he is working through but he has been coming to church almost every Sunday and he loves it. I know that he can overcome his trials that he is having right now and he will come out even stronger.
Saturday we had out soccer game with the members which was fun but I was freezing my butt off! Haha but we had a good time. Afterwards we taught a less active member who is very very interesting. I had taught him one time when I was with Elder Mayer and he got some odd kind of attachment to me. That next Sunday he actually came to church and then he wanted my email so that he could email me and then gave me his so I could email him too. I didn't think too much about it until I realized he didn't ask Elder Mayer or any of the other missionaries and then I kind of forgot because we didn't teach him again that transfer. Well a couple weeks ago, he called because he wanted to meet with us and so we had a nice rendez-vous and then again this last Saturday he called again wanting a rendez-vous the same day and he was very adamant about asking if "The Irish Elder" would be there... yes yes, he thinks I am Irish. I never even said that to him and I definitely don't have an Irish accent but he still thinks that I am. I haven't managed to correct him because I think that it is kind of funny. Anyway, so the rendez-vous went well and it went way too long because he just talks and talks and there is no way of stopping him. So we got done with the appointment and then he specifically wanted to talk to me because there was something he needed to tell me. I was a bit weired out but thought, ok that's fine. So he begins to tell me about how after my mission I need to make sure that I follow the good path and that he has these feelings that I might fall away and then he continued to tell me about a wife that I will have and three kids and just a lot of bizarre stuff. To be completely honest, I really wish that I could have understood everything because he talked to me for 20 minutes! It was a little interesting to say the least. When he finished he told me how he gets these feelings and how he needs to tell the people that they are about so that they can know how take his advice. He said that he is psychic but that this just happens sometimes. The whole situation was just very peculiar. He is a nice guy and I use to think that he was completely normal but now... I am not so positive. After him, we had another rendez-vous a little bit later with a little lady from Portugal who, when we taught her was very drunk. She was very very nice and receptive and willing to let us come back and talk some more but she was definitely a bit tipsy. She would randomly giggle about things. Haha it was pretty funny. But she was very nice and we actually have another rendez-vous with her tonight so I hope that it goes well.
Sunday we had someone come to church. We were so excited! He was someone who we contacted on the street a while ago and we had been trying to fix appointments with him but they never worked out, but he showed up at church and he loved it! Every week our Ward Mission Leader teachs a class during Sunday School for our investigators and the whole time our investigator was taking notes because he loved it so much! We set up a rendez-vous with him for Thursday this week and he said he will definitely be a church next week. We are so excited! After that we had some appointments not work out and in the evening we went with the Soeurs to give a blessing to one of thier investigators who had an epileptic attack during one of their appointments a week ago so she wanted a blessing. I did the annointing this time and my companion gave the blessing and it was really really good.
So, yesterday (monday) is normally my preparation day but we had a Zone meeting in Aix and interviews with President Carter so we got today as our Preparation Day. The meeting was really good and then afterwards there is a member in the ward who is American and is actually playing Basketball professionally for a team here so he invited us to have pizza with him. It was so nice. It was Dominos! I can't tell you how much I missed American Pizza! It was delicious.
So that has been my week. As usual, there were busy days and then slow days but it was still a very good week. I can't believe that I am already half way through my second transfer in France! How weird is that?? It has been four months since I left AZ. Weird! It has gone by very fast. I hope that everyone is doing well and that you know how grateful I am for you and how much I love you. Thank you all so much for everything that you do! Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, November 22, 2010
Week 18
Bonjour!
Well, what happened this week. That is always a good question that I like to ask myself when I write these emails. What did exactly happen? In the moment of the week, it is difficult to remember all the things but it is nice to take time once a week and go through each day and actually think about what happened and the real impact and significance of that day.
On Tuesday, the morning started out awesome. We had some time to just go out and do some contacting and we met a woman named Fanny. We talked to her a bit on the street in front of her apartment building and then she asked if we wanted to go into the cafe and continue our discussion in there. She had a coffee and my companion and I had some hot chocolate and we had a great discussion with her. She is not religious and can't find the reasoning of the existence of God (she compared it to the existence of Santa Clause) but we had an incredible discussion with her. She was very intelligent and had a lot of really good questions. In the end she gave us her contact information so that we could set up another appointment with her. It was rather unexpected but so cool. After that, later in the day, we taught a first lesson with someone that I received his contact information last transfer with Elder Mayer but we never had time to contact him and try to set something up. He is Muslim but very very open about religion and he is really just a very nice guy. The lesson went really well and he is super humble. If he truly reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it I know that he will receive a response. We unfortunately didn't have the time to set up a rendezvous with him last week because we were so busy with rendezvous everyday so we actually have an appointment with him tonight, I am super stoked. After we taught him, we ate at a member's house and I gave the spiritual thought all by myself. I asked questions, I responded, I shared testimony. I was fairly proud. It is those little baby steps like that that make me feel like I am progressing. I can't wait to look back in six months and see the change. That will definitely be cool.
Wednesday we had a rendezvous with a man who just moved to France from Algeria, he is a Doctor and he doesn't know anyone here or anything. He actually left the country for some interesting political situations. The lesson went well and he seemed to be very much in accordance with things and very willing to read the Book of Mormon. So that was cool. Afterwards, the rest of the day was a bit disappointing with quite a number of appointments falling through, as missionary work goes but we were able to find a less active woman not too far from where we live. I thought it was a bit of a miracle because it was very unexpected and the fact that she was actually at home, was very surprising. Other than that, the day was fairly normal and we were able to find some good contacts out on the street.
Thursday was a bit interesting. We had some appointments fall through... Nothing too new there but we ended up having an appointment way outside of Marseille and we had to take a bus for awhile to actually get out there. This guy was another one of the contacts that I had from last transfer. When we were calling my contacts back to set up appointments my companion called this guy and I didn't warn him first but he is a bit interesting. He has very very different outlooks on things and some very bizarre views. Namely that monogamy is not a good thing and other such things such as that. We had a very good conversation with him but ultimately it didn't change anything. He was unwilling to pray to find answers in his life. He felt prayer was a waste of time and that he wouldn't do it. Needless to say, we didn't schedule anything else with him and he definitely wasn't interested in learning anymore about our message. Regardless, it was still good and it helped me see how much I could actually follow in French and surprisingly, I understood quite a bit, so I was definitely happy about that.
Friday was a very good day. We had a meeting in Aix-en-Provence with the rest of the zone and a member of a quorum of the 70 Elder Teixeira and his wife came and spoke to us. It was a really good conference and he basically said that now is the time that we need to push. There are so many people that are out here ready for the church but that it is up to us to work even harder to bring it to these people. They are expecting a lot out of us and I know that all of us were thinking... gosh, we really really need to step it up! It was great. We got back to Marseille, had some appointments that fell through and so we pushed ourselves and got a good number of really solid contacts. It was a great day.
Saturday was good but full of appointments that didn't work out. We had 5 appointments scheduled and only one actually worked out. It was with a less active member so that's good but we were a little disappointed that we weren't able to teach all of the investigators that we had planned.
Sunday was good, although it was cold and rainy. It even was hailing for a little while! The only appointment that ended up working out was with another less active member. He is a great guy but hasn't been to church for quite awhile. He actually served a mission and everything. He speaks French but not too great so I can understand why he doesn't like going to church. He is actually moving to Ireland for work this week so we are thinking that will probably be a good thing for him in the long run to be there where church is actually in English. We were excited because he actually looked and found the Branch there and where they met, so I was excited to hear that he already looked for that.
Today has been good, just done some cleaning, grocery shopping and we went to a giant Catholic church that is up on this hill that gives a full panoramic view of all of Marseille and even over to the ocean, it is beautiful. The church is very ornate and pretty intense, including a very gigantic statue of a Golden Mary and baby Jesus on top of the church. I took some pictures so I will have to send them along soon for you all to see them.
As usual, thank you all so much for your continual love and support and your prays. The work is plugging along and everyday is a new adventure in one way or another. The French is coming and progressing, although it can feel slow at times. I have moments where I am surprised at what I understood and that I was actually able to explain myself. It's those little blessings that keep me going. I love you all and thank you for everything! Have a great week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Well, what happened this week. That is always a good question that I like to ask myself when I write these emails. What did exactly happen? In the moment of the week, it is difficult to remember all the things but it is nice to take time once a week and go through each day and actually think about what happened and the real impact and significance of that day.
On Tuesday, the morning started out awesome. We had some time to just go out and do some contacting and we met a woman named Fanny. We talked to her a bit on the street in front of her apartment building and then she asked if we wanted to go into the cafe and continue our discussion in there. She had a coffee and my companion and I had some hot chocolate and we had a great discussion with her. She is not religious and can't find the reasoning of the existence of God (she compared it to the existence of Santa Clause) but we had an incredible discussion with her. She was very intelligent and had a lot of really good questions. In the end she gave us her contact information so that we could set up another appointment with her. It was rather unexpected but so cool. After that, later in the day, we taught a first lesson with someone that I received his contact information last transfer with Elder Mayer but we never had time to contact him and try to set something up. He is Muslim but very very open about religion and he is really just a very nice guy. The lesson went really well and he is super humble. If he truly reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it I know that he will receive a response. We unfortunately didn't have the time to set up a rendezvous with him last week because we were so busy with rendezvous everyday so we actually have an appointment with him tonight, I am super stoked. After we taught him, we ate at a member's house and I gave the spiritual thought all by myself. I asked questions, I responded, I shared testimony. I was fairly proud. It is those little baby steps like that that make me feel like I am progressing. I can't wait to look back in six months and see the change. That will definitely be cool.
Wednesday we had a rendezvous with a man who just moved to France from Algeria, he is a Doctor and he doesn't know anyone here or anything. He actually left the country for some interesting political situations. The lesson went well and he seemed to be very much in accordance with things and very willing to read the Book of Mormon. So that was cool. Afterwards, the rest of the day was a bit disappointing with quite a number of appointments falling through, as missionary work goes but we were able to find a less active woman not too far from where we live. I thought it was a bit of a miracle because it was very unexpected and the fact that she was actually at home, was very surprising. Other than that, the day was fairly normal and we were able to find some good contacts out on the street.
Thursday was a bit interesting. We had some appointments fall through... Nothing too new there but we ended up having an appointment way outside of Marseille and we had to take a bus for awhile to actually get out there. This guy was another one of the contacts that I had from last transfer. When we were calling my contacts back to set up appointments my companion called this guy and I didn't warn him first but he is a bit interesting. He has very very different outlooks on things and some very bizarre views. Namely that monogamy is not a good thing and other such things such as that. We had a very good conversation with him but ultimately it didn't change anything. He was unwilling to pray to find answers in his life. He felt prayer was a waste of time and that he wouldn't do it. Needless to say, we didn't schedule anything else with him and he definitely wasn't interested in learning anymore about our message. Regardless, it was still good and it helped me see how much I could actually follow in French and surprisingly, I understood quite a bit, so I was definitely happy about that.
Friday was a very good day. We had a meeting in Aix-en-Provence with the rest of the zone and a member of a quorum of the 70 Elder Teixeira and his wife came and spoke to us. It was a really good conference and he basically said that now is the time that we need to push. There are so many people that are out here ready for the church but that it is up to us to work even harder to bring it to these people. They are expecting a lot out of us and I know that all of us were thinking... gosh, we really really need to step it up! It was great. We got back to Marseille, had some appointments that fell through and so we pushed ourselves and got a good number of really solid contacts. It was a great day.
Saturday was good but full of appointments that didn't work out. We had 5 appointments scheduled and only one actually worked out. It was with a less active member so that's good but we were a little disappointed that we weren't able to teach all of the investigators that we had planned.
Sunday was good, although it was cold and rainy. It even was hailing for a little while! The only appointment that ended up working out was with another less active member. He is a great guy but hasn't been to church for quite awhile. He actually served a mission and everything. He speaks French but not too great so I can understand why he doesn't like going to church. He is actually moving to Ireland for work this week so we are thinking that will probably be a good thing for him in the long run to be there where church is actually in English. We were excited because he actually looked and found the Branch there and where they met, so I was excited to hear that he already looked for that.
Today has been good, just done some cleaning, grocery shopping and we went to a giant Catholic church that is up on this hill that gives a full panoramic view of all of Marseille and even over to the ocean, it is beautiful. The church is very ornate and pretty intense, including a very gigantic statue of a Golden Mary and baby Jesus on top of the church. I took some pictures so I will have to send them along soon for you all to see them.
As usual, thank you all so much for your continual love and support and your prays. The work is plugging along and everyday is a new adventure in one way or another. The French is coming and progressing, although it can feel slow at times. I have moments where I am surprised at what I understood and that I was actually able to explain myself. It's those little blessings that keep me going. I love you all and thank you for everything! Have a great week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, November 15, 2010
Week 17
Bonjour,
Well, this has been a very interesting week with a lot of transitions and changing around. As I mentioned last week, I was waiting around for my new companion to arrive to Marseille. He didn't arrive until almost seven at night so I basically was waiting around all day. It wasn't too bad because Soeur Strunk (also from Marseille) and Elder Bus (in Aix) were waiting for their companions also so we spent some time going around the city and doing some site seeing and such which was cool because we never had anytime before that to do any stuff like that on our preparation day. It was a good day.... especially because I ate some ice cream that was so delicious. Haha I always have to add in the little tid bits about what I ate. :)
This week has surely been a week for appointments that have fallen through and to be honest, not too much exciting has really happened this week so I think I am just going to hit the highlights rather than talking about each and every day. The first day that is really significant in my mind is actually not until Friday. So on Friday, we ended up having to go to Toulon so that my companion, Elder Keadle, could do a baptismal interview for someone that the Elders had been teacher. Well, unfortunately she didn't show up and they haven't been able to get ahold of her for a few days. So we ended up spending part of the morning and beginning of the afternoon in Toulon. We missed a rendezvous that we were suppposed to have and they didn't answer their phone when we called to tell them that we couldn't make it. We got back to Marseille, and they called us and asked if we could come by that evening because they still wanted to hear our message. This contact was a guy, older twenties and his girlfriend, who Elder Mayer and I contacted on the street the week prior. We showed up and they also had a friend there. It was very interesting, because the guy had a very interesting "mystic" belief in what he thought God was, his girlfriend was raised Jewish and their friend, she was raised Catholic. Quite a combination of differing beliefs, but it was very cool. They were so interested in hearing our message and what our beliefs were all about. They asked tons of questions and when they would make comments it ended up leading straight into the next point of doctrine, it was incredible. After finishing the lesson, we kind of talked about some of their prejudgements of what they knew Mormons to be and so we cleared some stuff up for them and gave them a couple copies of the Book of Mormon and they were super excited. Towards the end, three more of their friends showed up and so we had a big discussion with all of them, it was awesome. We set up another rendezvous with them for this week and we are super stoked. I hope that all three of them will be able to be there.
The next big thing was a baptism! Marlon, an investigator of the Soeurs, was baptized on Saturday. We were a bit worried early in the morning because apparently Marlon's wife called the Soeurs and was not happy that he was being baptized and she just yelled at them and told them how terrible everything was. After that, we weren't sure what would happen, but Marlon would not let anything stop him from being baptized. He called the Soeurs about 2 hours before his baptism and he just said, "Can't we just do it right now? Do we really need to wait?" It was so cool. It was such a nice baptismal service and he was just absolutely thrilled and delighted for his baptism. It was so amazing to see how happy he truly was. It was incredible. Oh, so a couple funny things: In the middle of a talk before the actual baptism, a less active member was there and her cell phone went off and she proceeds to answer it in the middle of the talk. Thankfully she ended the call quickly, but just has she hung up, the Bishop's cell phone went off! Haha he was so red in the face and one of the members of the Bishopric could not stop laughing. It was pretty funny.
Sunday, was a fairly normal day, but I will be honest, I was looking at the week that had just passed and thought, "hmmm this wasn't such a stellar week, we need to make some changes." I had a ton of contacts from last transfer that I never got around to contacting because we were so busy all the time so we took some time and made calls and fixed 14 rendezvous for next week already. Our week is pretty much full every single day. I guarantee that we will have many that won't work out but the fact that we have so many at least for the get go, is a good sign. Also, I was quite proud but I fixed a ton of them all by myself on the phone! It is like every week I can see small little improvements and it gives me hope that I can learn this language. I was pretty excited. But, probably the biggest thing that happened was I gave my very first blessing in French. We went over to a member's house whose roommate (who isn't a member) was having some health problems and she wanted a blessing. The other companionship of Elders were there also and they had met her before so I figured she would ask them to do it... Well, when we asked who she wanted, she asked Elder Bowen's new companion, who is bleu but he is from Paris so he already speaks the language, to annoint the oil and then if I would do the sealing and then give the blessing. Oh my goodness was I absolutely out of my mind nervous. I was like, I can't speak this language, how am I supposed to give a blessing to someone! My companion could tell that I was mortified and he kept saying, "Are you ok? Are you sure?" He also reassured me that I could do it and that I would be fine. Well that was nice and all but I was still frightened. I went to do the blessing and I can't say that I was calm but I wasn't shaking and I was at peace. I just knew that the words that I said did not matter at all but that it was the spirit and the will of the Lord. I know that it wasn't a grand, marvelous, beautifully worded blessing, but I do know that it was simple and it was direct. I have no idea what caused her to specifically choose me to give that blessing but I am grateful I had the opportunity. So, that was my Sunday. I can definitely say that it was a good day and a good way to finish the week.
This week wasn't overly exciting but there were many small little things that were good. Each day, I try searching for the small little miracles and the small things that just made me smile. There are long days and there are tough days but there are so many things to be grateful for each day and so many amazing things that I get to witness and take part in.
Thank you so much for your love and your support and definitely for your prayers. I know that they help me each and everyday. I hope that you all are doing very well and that you are able to see the small miracles in each of your days as well. I promise you that if you search for them, you will always be able to find them. Have a great week and I love you all!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Well, this has been a very interesting week with a lot of transitions and changing around. As I mentioned last week, I was waiting around for my new companion to arrive to Marseille. He didn't arrive until almost seven at night so I basically was waiting around all day. It wasn't too bad because Soeur Strunk (also from Marseille) and Elder Bus (in Aix) were waiting for their companions also so we spent some time going around the city and doing some site seeing and such which was cool because we never had anytime before that to do any stuff like that on our preparation day. It was a good day.... especially because I ate some ice cream that was so delicious. Haha I always have to add in the little tid bits about what I ate. :)
This week has surely been a week for appointments that have fallen through and to be honest, not too much exciting has really happened this week so I think I am just going to hit the highlights rather than talking about each and every day. The first day that is really significant in my mind is actually not until Friday. So on Friday, we ended up having to go to Toulon so that my companion, Elder Keadle, could do a baptismal interview for someone that the Elders had been teacher. Well, unfortunately she didn't show up and they haven't been able to get ahold of her for a few days. So we ended up spending part of the morning and beginning of the afternoon in Toulon. We missed a rendezvous that we were suppposed to have and they didn't answer their phone when we called to tell them that we couldn't make it. We got back to Marseille, and they called us and asked if we could come by that evening because they still wanted to hear our message. This contact was a guy, older twenties and his girlfriend, who Elder Mayer and I contacted on the street the week prior. We showed up and they also had a friend there. It was very interesting, because the guy had a very interesting "mystic" belief in what he thought God was, his girlfriend was raised Jewish and their friend, she was raised Catholic. Quite a combination of differing beliefs, but it was very cool. They were so interested in hearing our message and what our beliefs were all about. They asked tons of questions and when they would make comments it ended up leading straight into the next point of doctrine, it was incredible. After finishing the lesson, we kind of talked about some of their prejudgements of what they knew Mormons to be and so we cleared some stuff up for them and gave them a couple copies of the Book of Mormon and they were super excited. Towards the end, three more of their friends showed up and so we had a big discussion with all of them, it was awesome. We set up another rendezvous with them for this week and we are super stoked. I hope that all three of them will be able to be there.
The next big thing was a baptism! Marlon, an investigator of the Soeurs, was baptized on Saturday. We were a bit worried early in the morning because apparently Marlon's wife called the Soeurs and was not happy that he was being baptized and she just yelled at them and told them how terrible everything was. After that, we weren't sure what would happen, but Marlon would not let anything stop him from being baptized. He called the Soeurs about 2 hours before his baptism and he just said, "Can't we just do it right now? Do we really need to wait?" It was so cool. It was such a nice baptismal service and he was just absolutely thrilled and delighted for his baptism. It was so amazing to see how happy he truly was. It was incredible. Oh, so a couple funny things: In the middle of a talk before the actual baptism, a less active member was there and her cell phone went off and she proceeds to answer it in the middle of the talk. Thankfully she ended the call quickly, but just has she hung up, the Bishop's cell phone went off! Haha he was so red in the face and one of the members of the Bishopric could not stop laughing. It was pretty funny.
Sunday, was a fairly normal day, but I will be honest, I was looking at the week that had just passed and thought, "hmmm this wasn't such a stellar week, we need to make some changes." I had a ton of contacts from last transfer that I never got around to contacting because we were so busy all the time so we took some time and made calls and fixed 14 rendezvous for next week already. Our week is pretty much full every single day. I guarantee that we will have many that won't work out but the fact that we have so many at least for the get go, is a good sign. Also, I was quite proud but I fixed a ton of them all by myself on the phone! It is like every week I can see small little improvements and it gives me hope that I can learn this language. I was pretty excited. But, probably the biggest thing that happened was I gave my very first blessing in French. We went over to a member's house whose roommate (who isn't a member) was having some health problems and she wanted a blessing. The other companionship of Elders were there also and they had met her before so I figured she would ask them to do it... Well, when we asked who she wanted, she asked Elder Bowen's new companion, who is bleu but he is from Paris so he already speaks the language, to annoint the oil and then if I would do the sealing and then give the blessing. Oh my goodness was I absolutely out of my mind nervous. I was like, I can't speak this language, how am I supposed to give a blessing to someone! My companion could tell that I was mortified and he kept saying, "Are you ok? Are you sure?" He also reassured me that I could do it and that I would be fine. Well that was nice and all but I was still frightened. I went to do the blessing and I can't say that I was calm but I wasn't shaking and I was at peace. I just knew that the words that I said did not matter at all but that it was the spirit and the will of the Lord. I know that it wasn't a grand, marvelous, beautifully worded blessing, but I do know that it was simple and it was direct. I have no idea what caused her to specifically choose me to give that blessing but I am grateful I had the opportunity. So, that was my Sunday. I can definitely say that it was a good day and a good way to finish the week.
This week wasn't overly exciting but there were many small little things that were good. Each day, I try searching for the small little miracles and the small things that just made me smile. There are long days and there are tough days but there are so many things to be grateful for each day and so many amazing things that I get to witness and take part in.
Thank you so much for your love and your support and definitely for your prayers. I know that they help me each and everyday. I hope that you all are doing very well and that you are able to see the small miracles in each of your days as well. I promise you that if you search for them, you will always be able to find them. Have a great week and I love you all!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, November 8, 2010
Week 16
Bonjour,
How is everyone doing? I am sure that you are all just sitting on edge to see if I am staying in Marseille or not..... well..... I am! I am staying in Marseille and my companion, Elder Mayer is moving to Bordeaux as a Zone Leader and my new companion is Elder Kiddo. I am actually waiting for him at the Train Station since he is coming in from Bordeaux on the otherside of the mission. So he won't be in until this evening. Elder Baret in our apartment is also leaving, he is going to Albi and Elder Bowen is staying but getting a bleu missionary. He is pretty excited. So I won't be the new guy anymore! Yay! This has been a really good week for the last week of this transfer.
Monday after emails and all that, we went and did family Home evening with a member in the ward. It was really good and I think they enjoyed it because they invited us over to eat with them the very next night. Dinner invitations are always very exciting. They don't happen quite as often as in the states and definitely not like in Arizona where the missionaries get dinner EVERY night with members.
Tuesday was a crazy day. Since I had my new missionary Bring Back Meeting on Wednesday, the Elders from Toulon came into Marseille on Tuesday for District Meeting and then we did splits with them since we know the city and they don't, not that I really know it very well, ha. So I went with Elder Cunningham and we had a few appointments and Elder Merservy went with Elder Mayer. Elder Cunningham and I taught a lesson and then got tons and tons of "snaps" on the street. Snaps are coordinates of people. Name, number, address, etc. Anyway, we got tons of them! More than I have every gotten before. It was awesome. In the evening, we re-exchanged so that Elder Mayer and I could go eat with the family that invited us over for dinner. The food was good and the family is very nice. He is in the Bishopric and she is in Young Womens and they have two little boys. Afterwards, we got back to the apartment and the Elders from Toulon were staying the night so that we could all go to Toulouse early in the morning. It was PACKED with 6 of us in our tiny apartment. That was very crazy, that's for sure.
Wednesday was so awesome. I got to see all of the other bleus! We took a 3 and a half hour train trip to Toulouse and got in and had to get a physical and a couple other things done at a France Government agency so that we could get our right to live in France for the year. So, yay, I am legal in France! In a year, I will have to go and fill out some more paperwork to extend my stay. Afterwards we went to the chapel in Toulouse and had lunch with the other half of the new missionaries. It was so awesome to see everyone again and see how they were liking it and hear their stories. We had a little meeting, and then that half left to go back and we had another meeting that the other group had already had earlier in the morning. They all live closer to Toulouse. Then we hurried up to get to the train. Thankfully, our train was late or else we would have completely missed it. I ended up having to run to the train station with my backpack and a nice big box full of Books of Mormon because the traffic was so bad. I was very tired after that. We got into Marseille fairly late so just went back to the apartment.
On Thursday, we did some service for a member, taught an ami, had someone not show up for their appointment and then met with a part member family. The husband is a member but his wife isn't. She is very nice but doesn't see the need of the church and getting baptized into our church. She even comes to church with her husband pretty much every single week. It was a pretty good lesson but we haven't quite figured out how to give her the desire to find out for herself if the gospel is true. It's a bit tricky but we are working on it.
Friday...hmmm... definitely was the day for people not following through with appointments. Every single one of our appointments fell through. We actually started an appointment with an old Jewish man who believed in Jesus until someone came up to him, grabbed him by the arm and said that he can't talk with us, and took him away. It was very bizarre... So much for free agency.... But we found the Synagogue in the neighborhood and left a Book of Mormon for him there, hopefully he will receive it. After that, We had an appointment in the early evening with a Muslim family who was very nice. They are kind of a little bit odd but nice. They definitely liked to talk a lot. We didn't get a ton of teaching in but we did set up another appointment. After that, we had an appointment with an ami who did have a date for baptism but it didn't work out, unfortunately. Also unfortunately, the appointment didn't work out either, because he had to work. So we went and did a pass back to the lady who I told you about a couple weeks ago when I was with Elder Merservy. She is very Catholic and LOVES to talk. Well she wasn't home when we had an appointment with her the week before and we lost contact. Well it was a bit of a miracle and she was actually home when we stopped by! So we kind of gave a mini lesson, got her phone number and set up another appointment. Yay! I was glad for that.
Saturday, this was definitely the day for appointments that didn't work out. We didn't end up having any appointments work out. We did some contacting and even some port a port. (Door to door contacting, which doesn't work too well in France) Nothing too exciting happened until the evening we got in a big religious debate with a Muslim guy. That was exciting. I even threw down some awesome questions for him that he couldn't answer. I was happy. I also was able to understand a lot too. It was a big moment for me. Ha
Sunday was church and I think I chatted with members all by myself more than I ever have before. It was great. I can definitely see progress from 6 weeks ago. Thank goodness! We also had 4 investigators at church! How awesome! One of them was an ami who we haven't been able to see for weeks because of his work schedule. I was so ecstatic to see him. He is so incredible and so prepared. Afterwards, we had an appointment with a Portuguese Catholic guy that went pretty well and then we went and saw one of the members who we see pretty much every week at least one appointment with. He is a great guy, just has his ups and downs with things. He was definitely sad that Elder Mayer was leaving. After that, we met Timothy, our investigator that we haven't seen in weeks that came to church, and went to eat with a family in the ward. It was so awesome! They had set this nice table setting with China and sooo much food. It was definitely a great day for the end of the transfer!
So today, has basically consisted of hanging out in the train station until my companion gets in. Nothing too exciting but I ate Subway which was very exciting. Haha it felt like home. :)
Well, that has been my week. Pretty packed as I look back on it. It was a good week and a good first 6 weeks. There were ups and down and highs and lows but I can definitely say it has been a good experience and it flew by. I am ready to continue to learn, grow, and help others feel the joy of the gospel. I have vowed to myself that I am going to work harder and be a better missionary this transfer. Thanks again for all of your love and support. I love you all very very much! Merci beaucoup pour toutes choses!
Elder Kirkpatrick
How is everyone doing? I am sure that you are all just sitting on edge to see if I am staying in Marseille or not..... well..... I am! I am staying in Marseille and my companion, Elder Mayer is moving to Bordeaux as a Zone Leader and my new companion is Elder Kiddo. I am actually waiting for him at the Train Station since he is coming in from Bordeaux on the otherside of the mission. So he won't be in until this evening. Elder Baret in our apartment is also leaving, he is going to Albi and Elder Bowen is staying but getting a bleu missionary. He is pretty excited. So I won't be the new guy anymore! Yay! This has been a really good week for the last week of this transfer.
Monday after emails and all that, we went and did family Home evening with a member in the ward. It was really good and I think they enjoyed it because they invited us over to eat with them the very next night. Dinner invitations are always very exciting. They don't happen quite as often as in the states and definitely not like in Arizona where the missionaries get dinner EVERY night with members.
Tuesday was a crazy day. Since I had my new missionary Bring Back Meeting on Wednesday, the Elders from Toulon came into Marseille on Tuesday for District Meeting and then we did splits with them since we know the city and they don't, not that I really know it very well, ha. So I went with Elder Cunningham and we had a few appointments and Elder Merservy went with Elder Mayer. Elder Cunningham and I taught a lesson and then got tons and tons of "snaps" on the street. Snaps are coordinates of people. Name, number, address, etc. Anyway, we got tons of them! More than I have every gotten before. It was awesome. In the evening, we re-exchanged so that Elder Mayer and I could go eat with the family that invited us over for dinner. The food was good and the family is very nice. He is in the Bishopric and she is in Young Womens and they have two little boys. Afterwards, we got back to the apartment and the Elders from Toulon were staying the night so that we could all go to Toulouse early in the morning. It was PACKED with 6 of us in our tiny apartment. That was very crazy, that's for sure.
Wednesday was so awesome. I got to see all of the other bleus! We took a 3 and a half hour train trip to Toulouse and got in and had to get a physical and a couple other things done at a France Government agency so that we could get our right to live in France for the year. So, yay, I am legal in France! In a year, I will have to go and fill out some more paperwork to extend my stay. Afterwards we went to the chapel in Toulouse and had lunch with the other half of the new missionaries. It was so awesome to see everyone again and see how they were liking it and hear their stories. We had a little meeting, and then that half left to go back and we had another meeting that the other group had already had earlier in the morning. They all live closer to Toulouse. Then we hurried up to get to the train. Thankfully, our train was late or else we would have completely missed it. I ended up having to run to the train station with my backpack and a nice big box full of Books of Mormon because the traffic was so bad. I was very tired after that. We got into Marseille fairly late so just went back to the apartment.
On Thursday, we did some service for a member, taught an ami, had someone not show up for their appointment and then met with a part member family. The husband is a member but his wife isn't. She is very nice but doesn't see the need of the church and getting baptized into our church. She even comes to church with her husband pretty much every single week. It was a pretty good lesson but we haven't quite figured out how to give her the desire to find out for herself if the gospel is true. It's a bit tricky but we are working on it.
Friday...hmmm... definitely was the day for people not following through with appointments. Every single one of our appointments fell through. We actually started an appointment with an old Jewish man who believed in Jesus until someone came up to him, grabbed him by the arm and said that he can't talk with us, and took him away. It was very bizarre... So much for free agency.... But we found the Synagogue in the neighborhood and left a Book of Mormon for him there, hopefully he will receive it. After that, We had an appointment in the early evening with a Muslim family who was very nice. They are kind of a little bit odd but nice. They definitely liked to talk a lot. We didn't get a ton of teaching in but we did set up another appointment. After that, we had an appointment with an ami who did have a date for baptism but it didn't work out, unfortunately. Also unfortunately, the appointment didn't work out either, because he had to work. So we went and did a pass back to the lady who I told you about a couple weeks ago when I was with Elder Merservy. She is very Catholic and LOVES to talk. Well she wasn't home when we had an appointment with her the week before and we lost contact. Well it was a bit of a miracle and she was actually home when we stopped by! So we kind of gave a mini lesson, got her phone number and set up another appointment. Yay! I was glad for that.
Saturday, this was definitely the day for appointments that didn't work out. We didn't end up having any appointments work out. We did some contacting and even some port a port. (Door to door contacting, which doesn't work too well in France) Nothing too exciting happened until the evening we got in a big religious debate with a Muslim guy. That was exciting. I even threw down some awesome questions for him that he couldn't answer. I was happy. I also was able to understand a lot too. It was a big moment for me. Ha
Sunday was church and I think I chatted with members all by myself more than I ever have before. It was great. I can definitely see progress from 6 weeks ago. Thank goodness! We also had 4 investigators at church! How awesome! One of them was an ami who we haven't been able to see for weeks because of his work schedule. I was so ecstatic to see him. He is so incredible and so prepared. Afterwards, we had an appointment with a Portuguese Catholic guy that went pretty well and then we went and saw one of the members who we see pretty much every week at least one appointment with. He is a great guy, just has his ups and downs with things. He was definitely sad that Elder Mayer was leaving. After that, we met Timothy, our investigator that we haven't seen in weeks that came to church, and went to eat with a family in the ward. It was so awesome! They had set this nice table setting with China and sooo much food. It was definitely a great day for the end of the transfer!
So today, has basically consisted of hanging out in the train station until my companion gets in. Nothing too exciting but I ate Subway which was very exciting. Haha it felt like home. :)
Well, that has been my week. Pretty packed as I look back on it. It was a good week and a good first 6 weeks. There were ups and down and highs and lows but I can definitely say it has been a good experience and it flew by. I am ready to continue to learn, grow, and help others feel the joy of the gospel. I have vowed to myself that I am going to work harder and be a better missionary this transfer. Thanks again for all of your love and support. I love you all very very much! Merci beaucoup pour toutes choses!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, November 1, 2010
Week 15
Hello everyone,
I hope that everything is going well back in your perspective places of residence. Most likely Arizona, but there may be the off chance that my blog has now made it to world wide acclaim. Unlikely I know, I can imagine right? Well, hmmm, every week is a bit of a struggle trying to figure out what it is that I want to actually tell that will be interesting. Interesting things happen here but not also interesting for you. Oh, one very good thing is that the trash strike is now officially over!! Yay! They have started taking care of the very large and very stinky piles of trash, thank heavens! One of the members said that a garbage worker was being interviewed right before the strike ended and he said, "Well, I have to get back to work soon, because I have no money to feed my family." Hmmm, I think that is a good reason to end a strike if you ask me. Anyway, I am just glad it is finally over. It was smelly. Not only that but the last few days has been very rainy..... non stop in fact, so the trash is just being dragged down the side walks by the rain and getting nasty and mushy. Lovely, I know. Sounds like "Romantic France" right? Haha! Alright, let me ponder and think of the highlights of the week....
Well, unfortunately, it has been another week of a lot of no show appointments and rendez-vous that haven't been working out. Our ami's (investigators) with baptismal dates kind of fell off the tracks a bit. One didn't show up for the last 5 rendez-vous and the other one works all the time and rarely has time or is super tired, so we haven't really seen him either. And the third one, was progressing along really really well, but something happened, I have no idea what, and he cancelled a rendez-vous and doesn't have time until later this week. Kind of a bummer, that's for sure. But, you never know what could happen this next week. We might see three grand miracles.... you never know.
On Wednesday, I had another exchange with the other companionship in Marseille. So Elder Baret and I had the appointments of Elder Mayer and I and Elder Mayer went with Elder Bowen. It was a good day. I had a Kabob for lunch.. mmmm and a Foret Noir (this incredible pastry that was basically little layers of chocolate cake with tons of cream in between each layer.... delicious! Ha! I love how the hightlights of my week include the food that I was able to try. I asked Elder Baret if he knew all the names of the pasteries and he said, "Duh, I'm French!" Haha! He is hilarious and from Grenoble, which is only about two hours from Marseille. We only ended up having one Rendez-vous that day because everyone cancelled on us or didn't show up but we had a good lesson. It was a bit long but it went well. It was with one of our continuous investigators. He has been an investigators for like 8 years or something crazy like that. We are working towards baptism but we still have a ways to go. He is a great guy though. His wife is very very Catholic and is the major reason that he won't get baptized, she doesn't approve at all.
On Thursday, we had some more appointments not work out. And we went and taught a Témoigne Jéhovah (Jehovah's Witness) for awhile. The TJ's (as we call them) are everywhere here! Not only that but everyone mistakes us for the TJs also. I couldn't really keep up with my companions lesson/debate with him so I talked to his TJ companion who was this old lady who actually translated the Bible from Ancient Greek into French for the TJs. I thought that was pretty interesting. So her and I just kind of chit chatted. Ha! She knows like 6 different languages. It's crazy! I just kept thinking, "She knows six languages and I am struggling learning a second, how is that fair??" Eh, c'est la vie! After that we went wih a member, who we recently reactivated.... (heck yes!!), to go and teach with us but the investigator wasn't home. So we went and stopped by an older less active lady in the ward. She is less active because she can't really get around very well so she can't physically make it to church. But she is the sweetest little old lady! She has all these pictures around in her apartment with different missionaries who would come and visit. It was so cool. She told us that she was still praying and reading the scriptures and she pulled this necklace that was tucked into her blouse and it was a rosery with a cross on it. Our member who was with us (who also used to be catholic) was like, you aren't Catholic anymore, why do you have that. And she said, "oh I know, but it helps me remember to pray." Haha it was funny. She was so sweet. When we went to leave, I went over to shake her hand to go and she was like, "no, no we are all Frères and Soeurs, we bisous." I hesitated because technically we aren't supposed to do that with Soeurs but she is like 84 years old, I couldn't tell her that we aren't supposed to do that. So I got some bisous from an old lady this week. Haha Oh bisous are those little French side cheek kisses (I'm not sure if I explained that already..... it is funny how stereotypically French that is but how everyone does it! I have seen teenage boys do it to each other... It's just cultural. So watch out everyone, in two years I will come home and want to bisous everyone.... yeah, probably not. Ha!)
On Friday we had a special meeting for the Zone in Aix-en-Provence for everyone in our zone and President and Soeur Carter. It was very good, as those meetings always are. I enjoy them partially because it is a day out of the oridnary and because we get to hear some awesome advice. It was ALL in French and I actually understood the whole thing. Yay! It's getting better, I know that it is. It's still very difficult but I can see little tiny specs of progress. After we got back to Marseille and had a Rendez-vous with a less active member but we got lost and ended up wandering around forever trying to find him. By the time he found us in his car, he had to drive us home and we gave a short lesson in the car ride.
Saturday... and thus commenced the rain.... We didn't really have much until we went to a rendez-vous with a Catholic Priest.... haha I know.... That was funny. He actually has a very interesting story. He was Muslim for most of his life until he converted to Catholicism and became a Priest. He works with a lot of different religions, so he wanted to know more about ours. So we taught him and he was interested and said he would read and we have another rendez-vous with him next week. Hopefully he actually read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, if he is already that religious, it will be interesting to see how the Book of Mormon effects him. Oh, on top of all that, we actually taught him in a building that the Catholic church owns and uses for various things. Ha, I thought that was somewhat ironic. After that, we basically wandered around in the rain without an umbrella for three hours... It was a bit needless, but that's another story entirely. Anyway, I was absolutely soaked from head to toe and freezing. I can't say that was super fun.
On Sunday it was Daylight Savings time so we got to sleep in an extra hour in the morning.. that was nice. Now, I think I am 10 hours different from Arizona... That's weird! Church was usual except that there were tons of investigators that came! Which was incredible! One of ours and then the Sister Missionaries had 6 come. Wow! They showed us up! But that's still amazing. They have a bunch that are very close to baptism. We are very thrilled... and slightly envious. Haha :) After church, we hurried and gave a guy a Polish Book of Mormon who we met last week before he left to move to Lille. That was really cool. He gave us hugs because he was so happy. He doesn't really speak French but he kind of speaks German so my companion was speaking to him in German so I am not entirely sure what happened. And when he would respond it would be in broken French-English... Although he says he doesn't know English. After that our appointments didn't work out but on the way back to the apartment, we met a semi-homeless older man on a bench and taught him the first lesson and it was amazing. He was super nice and humble. I am not sure how far it will go but we have another appointment on the same bench this week. Hopefully he will be there.
Today, has been good. Still rainy as it was yesterday too and as it is supposed to be until Wednesday. Yikes! We didn't really do anything too exciting today. Just went grocery shopping and such. This week should be pretty good because I get to go to Toulouse on Wednesday to have a meeting with all the new missionaries all day. I am so excited! It will be awesome to see everyone again and find out how they like their cities. I am stoked. And this is our last week of this transfer (I can't believe it is already over!!) and so on Friday we find out about Transfers and then transfers will happen next Monday. How crazy! So I will let you all know about the changes next P-day.
As always, thank you so much for your love and support continually. I love you all and am so grateful for you. I hope that my stories are at least somewhat interesting. Until next week! Bisous-bisous!! (Hahaha just kidding!) Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I hope that everything is going well back in your perspective places of residence. Most likely Arizona, but there may be the off chance that my blog has now made it to world wide acclaim. Unlikely I know, I can imagine right? Well, hmmm, every week is a bit of a struggle trying to figure out what it is that I want to actually tell that will be interesting. Interesting things happen here but not also interesting for you. Oh, one very good thing is that the trash strike is now officially over!! Yay! They have started taking care of the very large and very stinky piles of trash, thank heavens! One of the members said that a garbage worker was being interviewed right before the strike ended and he said, "Well, I have to get back to work soon, because I have no money to feed my family." Hmmm, I think that is a good reason to end a strike if you ask me. Anyway, I am just glad it is finally over. It was smelly. Not only that but the last few days has been very rainy..... non stop in fact, so the trash is just being dragged down the side walks by the rain and getting nasty and mushy. Lovely, I know. Sounds like "Romantic France" right? Haha! Alright, let me ponder and think of the highlights of the week....
Well, unfortunately, it has been another week of a lot of no show appointments and rendez-vous that haven't been working out. Our ami's (investigators) with baptismal dates kind of fell off the tracks a bit. One didn't show up for the last 5 rendez-vous and the other one works all the time and rarely has time or is super tired, so we haven't really seen him either. And the third one, was progressing along really really well, but something happened, I have no idea what, and he cancelled a rendez-vous and doesn't have time until later this week. Kind of a bummer, that's for sure. But, you never know what could happen this next week. We might see three grand miracles.... you never know.
On Wednesday, I had another exchange with the other companionship in Marseille. So Elder Baret and I had the appointments of Elder Mayer and I and Elder Mayer went with Elder Bowen. It was a good day. I had a Kabob for lunch.. mmmm and a Foret Noir (this incredible pastry that was basically little layers of chocolate cake with tons of cream in between each layer.... delicious! Ha! I love how the hightlights of my week include the food that I was able to try. I asked Elder Baret if he knew all the names of the pasteries and he said, "Duh, I'm French!" Haha! He is hilarious and from Grenoble, which is only about two hours from Marseille. We only ended up having one Rendez-vous that day because everyone cancelled on us or didn't show up but we had a good lesson. It was a bit long but it went well. It was with one of our continuous investigators. He has been an investigators for like 8 years or something crazy like that. We are working towards baptism but we still have a ways to go. He is a great guy though. His wife is very very Catholic and is the major reason that he won't get baptized, she doesn't approve at all.
On Thursday, we had some more appointments not work out. And we went and taught a Témoigne Jéhovah (Jehovah's Witness) for awhile. The TJ's (as we call them) are everywhere here! Not only that but everyone mistakes us for the TJs also. I couldn't really keep up with my companions lesson/debate with him so I talked to his TJ companion who was this old lady who actually translated the Bible from Ancient Greek into French for the TJs. I thought that was pretty interesting. So her and I just kind of chit chatted. Ha! She knows like 6 different languages. It's crazy! I just kept thinking, "She knows six languages and I am struggling learning a second, how is that fair??" Eh, c'est la vie! After that we went wih a member, who we recently reactivated.... (heck yes!!), to go and teach with us but the investigator wasn't home. So we went and stopped by an older less active lady in the ward. She is less active because she can't really get around very well so she can't physically make it to church. But she is the sweetest little old lady! She has all these pictures around in her apartment with different missionaries who would come and visit. It was so cool. She told us that she was still praying and reading the scriptures and she pulled this necklace that was tucked into her blouse and it was a rosery with a cross on it. Our member who was with us (who also used to be catholic) was like, you aren't Catholic anymore, why do you have that. And she said, "oh I know, but it helps me remember to pray." Haha it was funny. She was so sweet. When we went to leave, I went over to shake her hand to go and she was like, "no, no we are all Frères and Soeurs, we bisous." I hesitated because technically we aren't supposed to do that with Soeurs but she is like 84 years old, I couldn't tell her that we aren't supposed to do that. So I got some bisous from an old lady this week. Haha Oh bisous are those little French side cheek kisses (I'm not sure if I explained that already..... it is funny how stereotypically French that is but how everyone does it! I have seen teenage boys do it to each other... It's just cultural. So watch out everyone, in two years I will come home and want to bisous everyone.... yeah, probably not. Ha!)
On Friday we had a special meeting for the Zone in Aix-en-Provence for everyone in our zone and President and Soeur Carter. It was very good, as those meetings always are. I enjoy them partially because it is a day out of the oridnary and because we get to hear some awesome advice. It was ALL in French and I actually understood the whole thing. Yay! It's getting better, I know that it is. It's still very difficult but I can see little tiny specs of progress. After we got back to Marseille and had a Rendez-vous with a less active member but we got lost and ended up wandering around forever trying to find him. By the time he found us in his car, he had to drive us home and we gave a short lesson in the car ride.
Saturday... and thus commenced the rain.... We didn't really have much until we went to a rendez-vous with a Catholic Priest.... haha I know.... That was funny. He actually has a very interesting story. He was Muslim for most of his life until he converted to Catholicism and became a Priest. He works with a lot of different religions, so he wanted to know more about ours. So we taught him and he was interested and said he would read and we have another rendez-vous with him next week. Hopefully he actually read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, if he is already that religious, it will be interesting to see how the Book of Mormon effects him. Oh, on top of all that, we actually taught him in a building that the Catholic church owns and uses for various things. Ha, I thought that was somewhat ironic. After that, we basically wandered around in the rain without an umbrella for three hours... It was a bit needless, but that's another story entirely. Anyway, I was absolutely soaked from head to toe and freezing. I can't say that was super fun.
On Sunday it was Daylight Savings time so we got to sleep in an extra hour in the morning.. that was nice. Now, I think I am 10 hours different from Arizona... That's weird! Church was usual except that there were tons of investigators that came! Which was incredible! One of ours and then the Sister Missionaries had 6 come. Wow! They showed us up! But that's still amazing. They have a bunch that are very close to baptism. We are very thrilled... and slightly envious. Haha :) After church, we hurried and gave a guy a Polish Book of Mormon who we met last week before he left to move to Lille. That was really cool. He gave us hugs because he was so happy. He doesn't really speak French but he kind of speaks German so my companion was speaking to him in German so I am not entirely sure what happened. And when he would respond it would be in broken French-English... Although he says he doesn't know English. After that our appointments didn't work out but on the way back to the apartment, we met a semi-homeless older man on a bench and taught him the first lesson and it was amazing. He was super nice and humble. I am not sure how far it will go but we have another appointment on the same bench this week. Hopefully he will be there.
Today, has been good. Still rainy as it was yesterday too and as it is supposed to be until Wednesday. Yikes! We didn't really do anything too exciting today. Just went grocery shopping and such. This week should be pretty good because I get to go to Toulouse on Wednesday to have a meeting with all the new missionaries all day. I am so excited! It will be awesome to see everyone again and find out how they like their cities. I am stoked. And this is our last week of this transfer (I can't believe it is already over!!) and so on Friday we find out about Transfers and then transfers will happen next Monday. How crazy! So I will let you all know about the changes next P-day.
As always, thank you so much for your love and support continually. I love you all and am so grateful for you. I hope that my stories are at least somewhat interesting. Until next week! Bisous-bisous!! (Hahaha just kidding!) Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Just a quick "in between"
To all of Ethan's loyal readers:
I am Ethan's big little sister Ashley as he calls me, and I am the only one that posts to this blog. Ethan only has internet use for the purpose of emailing his family so he does not read the blog at all. You are more than welcome to comment as you'd like and I do and always will share those comments with Ethan, but just so you know Ethan doesn't directly receive these comments. He truly appreciates having so many loyal readers and loves to hear from all of you so write him often or comment here and I will pass it along.
Thanks for supporting and sharing your love with my brother,
Ashley
Monday, October 25, 2010
Week 14
Bonjour!
Hello everyone, I don't have a ton of time today so this may be somewhat short. Sorry for that. Besides, I don't have my planner with me so it is very difficult for me to remember exactly what happened each day. Ha! I should be able to send some pictures from last week and this week off though. So this week.... hmmm.... what happened....? Well the grevés continue (the strikes) and trash continues to pile up continually around the streets. What is worse is that young teenagers seem to think that it is hilarious to start the piles of trash on fire. So there are charred piles of partially burned trash all over the place. In fact, we just passed one on the way here and the trash was right next to a car and it burned a ton of the car, inside and out. It's ridiculous. Not only that, but all public transportation decided to want to take strikes right now at different times too. The Metro workers have gone on strike, the train workers have gone on strike, the bus drivers have gone on strike and the tram workers went on strike. There was one day this last week when the buses weren't going, the trams weren't going, the trains were super delayed and the metro was about 20 minutes between next metro car. It has been kind of ridiculous. The transportation is better now but trash is still striking. Apparently, last year they did this for 5 weeks and then they settled and the army was hired to clean up the mess. We are now about at the beginning of week three, I hope that it ends soon. Although, people don't seem overly concerned, in that aspect it is kind of funny.
Hmmmm, so highlights for the week..... We had lots of appointments that fell through... partially thanks to all of the strikes. We have three investigators working towards baptism.... lets hope things continue to progress well. It is really incredible to see how the gospel influences their lives. Oh and this guy who is kind of an investigator (he has been with the missionaries on and off for a long time and loves the missionaries) told us that he wanted to have relations with us.... yes, you know what that means.... needless to say, the rendez-vous after that was a bit awkward. And he always seems to pop up in random places. Like he was on the metro same time as us yesterday, he happened to be getting on the same time with us this morning. In fact, he was up at the first car and we were in the back and started running to our car, didn't make it at the first stop and then the next stop ran into our car and started talking to us.... it's very interesting. He talks super fast so I don't catch a lot of what he says but I still understand some things. Oh speaking of which, the understanding of French is getting a lot better. I can participate in lessons better and in fact, I have talked to several people on the metro and streets all by myself all in French and answered questions and taught... it is such a mini step but a grand miracle when I look back on those times in retrospect. French is coming.... it's just like the saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day".... well in my case, French is not learned in a day. It takes time and lots of practice. It will come, I know that it will, there are just some frustrations along the way.
Since I don't remember everyday I will tell you the big things that I remember. So on Wednesday, we had another exchange. Elder Mayer went to Touloun with Elder Cunningham and I stayed in Marseille with Elder Merservy. He is another bleu that came in with me. We had four rendez-vous scheduled and I still had to find a member to teach for one rendez-vous and figure out how to get to all of them. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed. If any of you have been to a European city, you know how crazy and absolutely ridiculous the roads are. They don't make any sense! So the first rendez-vous cancelled because the buses weren't running. (Oh by the way this was also the day when EVERYBODY was on strike so the buses and trams weren't running and the metros were taking forever) Elder Mayer had scheduled a member to teach with us for the first appointment and since he cancelled we were going to just teach the member.... so we get to the metro stomp and I can't find the member. I call him and he says, "Well I didn't come because I got to the metro and it was such a long wait and I wouldn't have made it, so I just went home." Of course he didn't call to let me know this.... ugh. Anyway, now I am hunting for a member for the next rendez-vous and so I called someone and he was too tired but that he would try to make it. I told him to call me and let me know but I knew that it totally wasn't going to pull through. We headed out in the direction of that rendez-vous (it was on the other side of town and I tried to find a member... all while contacting and such). We got to the stop and got ahold of a member and she was able to come thank goodness! But she wanted us to meet her at her metro stop and then go back to where our appointment was.... goodness! We took the" metro over there, got her, headed back to the other metro stop and went to find our rendez-vous. We found the apartment and much to my surprise... the person was there! She is this older women who is about 70 and devout Catholic. She was a bit crazy.... We barely were able to teach anything because each time we would start she would interject with a comment and a story. She paints so she had to show us her paintings and her shrine in her room to the Virgin Marie and then this dancing rapper doll thing and then newspaper articles. At one point, she gave us drinks of water and Elder Merservy took a drink of his and there was still beer in it when she filled it up with water so it tasted like beer. Haha Elder Merservy took a sip and then had this disgusted look on his face. She was like, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry" and then she quickly cleaned. I had such a hard time not just busting out laughing. Each time we started to continue she would just butt in. At one point she just looks at our member and is like "Oh, you have a pimple there on your face, I have a cream that will clear that up." She got up, got the cream, demonstrated how to use it and then wrapped it up and gave it to our member.... so bizarre. After an hour and repeatedly trying to finish, we finally left and I gave her the commitment to read and pray and come to church and set up another appointment with her. We will see how the next appointment goes.. After that, we had two other appointments that fell through because of the strikes. All in al the day was great. We received 5 coordinates from people (their names and phone numbers) to set up appointments with them. It was a good and crazy day.
Other than that, our week was pretty normal, from what I remember. Details are very difficult to remember exactly. Ha, last night we were supposed to meet this 19 year old girl for an appointment and she texted and asked if we could do it later. Of course we said yes. So we left and then came back to where we were supposed to meet her and she didn't show up again! She won't answer her phone, she will only text. Come to find out she told us that she didn't have the courage to come. She then asks, "So can I ask why it is that you really want to meet me?" She thought we were hitting on her or something. We were like, because we have a message of religion we want to share with you.... crazy girls. We rescheduled and have another appointment. Hopefully she will actually come!
Since today was P-day we went for a hike about half an hour out of Marseille and it was so freezing. It is so cold today!! And the wind is crazy! It was fun but cold. It was nice to have a day that was a bit different. Anyway, as always, I want to thank all of you for your love and support and tell you all how much I truly appreciate it. You all mean so much to me and I miss you all! Thank you for everything!
Elder Ethan Kirkpatrick
Monday, October 18, 2010
Week 13
Bonjour!
Well, it has been another busy week in Southern France full of many different things. I thought it would be fun to bullet point a couple of things that I have learned in the past week.
1.Don't ever think that a city is already dirty, because then the garbage workers will go on strike and trash will start piling the roads and the sidewalks (it has been a week and the strike is still going on.....)
2.There is nothing better than a warm fresh baguette on a cold windy day.
3.Don't ever rely too much on appointments.... they often fall through
4.I am a wimp when it comes to cold.... (the other night, we were out on the street and it was freezing and the wind was blowing and everybody we talked to was like, "Are you ok? You look like you are freezing".... consequently, I have pulled out my gloves, sweater, and scarves)
As normal, it has been a week full of many things. Yes, the garbage workers are on strike and there is trash everywhere! We take our trash down to the street from the apartment and just throw it in the big pile that is erupting everywhere. I don't know how much longer it will last but when they are off strike again, they will have a very nasty mess to clean up afterwards. And yes, that baguette when I was freezing was delicious.... and they are super cheap too, less than a euro! And yes.... I have been freezing the last couple days... the temperature dropped off and currently I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweater and my suit jacket and this morning I had my scarf and gloves on too... it will be my first legitimately cold winter....
Alright so I shall begin with the events of the week. Mardi (Tuesday) was our preparation day for last week so we did all the P day stuff but in the evening we went to a member family's house for dinner. They are an older couple but they have these two young boys (people in France don't start to have kids until they are old). These two boys were freaking wild! Within the first twenty mintues one of them knocked over a glass onto the floor and it shattered everywhere! They kept trying to pour their own grape and apple juice and their parents were chasing them trying to get the cartons back. We finally sat down to eat and after we had dinner, the little one got up and kept turning the lights on and off, on and off, over and over again. Well, either way, they were a very nice family. The children were just a bit on the crazy side.
On mercredi (Wednesday), we started out by doing service at the "in-construction" home of a recent convert. He has had the house for 8 years and it has been in the process of being built that whole time...needless to say it, the grounds have gotten a bit out of control. So, Elder Mayer and I spent a couple hours out there clearing his drive out and that was quite a chore. We barely barely made a dent in it but it still looked better than it had before. After that, all of our rendez-vous fell through except we had dinner with a member family again. It was good and they are very nice. We ate with the parents, their daughter and her husband and their little girl who are all in the ward. As Elder Mayer loves to do, we did a "simulation" where I talked to the daughter and had to explain to me about the law of chastity... oh joy and I was her friend from work. I guess I don't mind the simulation things so much. It keeps me involved when other times they are all going off about who-knows-what in French and I just sit there trying to pick out words.
Jeudi (Thursday) I had an exchange with Elder Bowen and his companion Elder Baret went with my companion. They are the other companionship in our apartment so I didn't have to travel anywhere for this one. Basically, every single one of our appointments fell through.... but there were some definite highlights. Firstly, I had my first kabob! Woot! A kabob is this French thing that they love where they take lamb meat and put it in a baguette or a wrap and put in sauce and tomatoes and lettuce and onions and french fries. Basically it is a big greasy tasty mess. Ha! It was good. The other highlight was a crazy man that called Elder Bown and wanted to meet us. I am not sure how he got our number but he called us. So we went to meet him and he is this black guy and first he started telling us about how he can see the light of Christ in us and the authority that we have and all this stuff. So I was thinking, "wow, this guy could have some real potential." But then it just got weird. He would not stop talking and he was talking about Jesus and how much he loves him and he started crying and then he was jumping screaming about how he loves Jesus. People would walk by and he would yell at them that he loved them and that Jesus loved them and he started hugging some Muslim guy telling him about the love of Jesus. This went on for about 45 minutes before we could finally leave. It was so weird. He would grab us and tell us he loved us and that Jesus loved us and the work we are doing. It was odd. So that was thursday.
Vendredi (Friday) I had another exchange. Woot! This time it was with the Zone Leaders. So I went with the one Zone Leader to Aix-en-Provence and the other Zone Leader stayed in Marseille. I was totally fine with going to Aix. It is beautiful there!!... And we had a car! But it was such a great day. I went out "Brebis Boarding" for the first time. So we have this sign and stick it out on the sidewelk somewhere and we have a box of copies of The Book of Mormon and we would just give out Book of Mormons to anyone that wanted one. It was really cool and I talked to a lot of people, plenty who weren't interested but had a couple small converstaions with people and then if people would get into the conversation Elder Wilson would come over and help me out... I don't understand a lot. (A brebis is a sheep in French so like the scriptures talk about finding Christ's lost sheep, that's why we call it brebis boarding... that and because the board has a scripture on it about brebis.) After that we went and ate with the Bishop of the ward in Aix and he lives about 30 minutes away from Aix. He had a nice home in this little town, it was really cool. He had three of the most well behaved little children I have ever seen, they were so amazing the entire time and it was even late too. So I had an awesome day in Aix!
Samedi (Saturday) I met back up with my companion around 12:30 and once again, all of our appointments fell through. But we taught some less active members who were really cool.
Dimanche (Sunday) we had church and afterwards a young boy in the ward was baptized. We had one of our investigators come to church and stay for the baptism afterwards. There was also some random guy that came who no one knew who he was. He was at the bus stop where we got off but we didn't even talk to him but he randomly showed up at church. He wasn't wearing any shoes and he had this bag with him and a carton of pineapple juice that he was drinking. His name was Coco and he legitamitly thought he was Jesus. No joke! He even said it. My companion talked to him and apparently he was in a car accident a few years ago and his wife died and he has been a little crazy ever since. That was sad when I heard all that... After church... all of our appointments fell through... go figure, right? Ha! So we basically contacted around. Some crazy lady on the street called me a jeune fil! That means a young girl.... crazy women!!
Aujourd'hi (today) we were going to go to Château d'If like from Count of Monte Cristo but it is closed for refurbishment at least until the middle of November! Darn! But us four from our apartment and the Sœurs went to this Island right by the island with Château d'If on it and it was so cool. I have some pictures that I will send later because the card reading isn't working today but we walked all around and went up to this little castle thing and it was amazing. It was basically as you would picture any island in Greece. It was incredible.... and incredibly windy!
So anyway, that's how my week has been, I hope that you all are doing well. I love you all very much and I am so grateful for your constant support. Au revoir!
Elder Ethan Kirkpatrick
Well, it has been another busy week in Southern France full of many different things. I thought it would be fun to bullet point a couple of things that I have learned in the past week.
1.Don't ever think that a city is already dirty, because then the garbage workers will go on strike and trash will start piling the roads and the sidewalks (it has been a week and the strike is still going on.....)
2.There is nothing better than a warm fresh baguette on a cold windy day.
3.Don't ever rely too much on appointments.... they often fall through
4.I am a wimp when it comes to cold.... (the other night, we were out on the street and it was freezing and the wind was blowing and everybody we talked to was like, "Are you ok? You look like you are freezing".... consequently, I have pulled out my gloves, sweater, and scarves)
As normal, it has been a week full of many things. Yes, the garbage workers are on strike and there is trash everywhere! We take our trash down to the street from the apartment and just throw it in the big pile that is erupting everywhere. I don't know how much longer it will last but when they are off strike again, they will have a very nasty mess to clean up afterwards. And yes, that baguette when I was freezing was delicious.... and they are super cheap too, less than a euro! And yes.... I have been freezing the last couple days... the temperature dropped off and currently I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweater and my suit jacket and this morning I had my scarf and gloves on too... it will be my first legitimately cold winter....
Alright so I shall begin with the events of the week. Mardi (Tuesday) was our preparation day for last week so we did all the P day stuff but in the evening we went to a member family's house for dinner. They are an older couple but they have these two young boys (people in France don't start to have kids until they are old). These two boys were freaking wild! Within the first twenty mintues one of them knocked over a glass onto the floor and it shattered everywhere! They kept trying to pour their own grape and apple juice and their parents were chasing them trying to get the cartons back. We finally sat down to eat and after we had dinner, the little one got up and kept turning the lights on and off, on and off, over and over again. Well, either way, they were a very nice family. The children were just a bit on the crazy side.
On mercredi (Wednesday), we started out by doing service at the "in-construction" home of a recent convert. He has had the house for 8 years and it has been in the process of being built that whole time...needless to say it, the grounds have gotten a bit out of control. So, Elder Mayer and I spent a couple hours out there clearing his drive out and that was quite a chore. We barely barely made a dent in it but it still looked better than it had before. After that, all of our rendez-vous fell through except we had dinner with a member family again. It was good and they are very nice. We ate with the parents, their daughter and her husband and their little girl who are all in the ward. As Elder Mayer loves to do, we did a "simulation" where I talked to the daughter and had to explain to me about the law of chastity... oh joy and I was her friend from work. I guess I don't mind the simulation things so much. It keeps me involved when other times they are all going off about who-knows-what in French and I just sit there trying to pick out words.
Jeudi (Thursday) I had an exchange with Elder Bowen and his companion Elder Baret went with my companion. They are the other companionship in our apartment so I didn't have to travel anywhere for this one. Basically, every single one of our appointments fell through.... but there were some definite highlights. Firstly, I had my first kabob! Woot! A kabob is this French thing that they love where they take lamb meat and put it in a baguette or a wrap and put in sauce and tomatoes and lettuce and onions and french fries. Basically it is a big greasy tasty mess. Ha! It was good. The other highlight was a crazy man that called Elder Bown and wanted to meet us. I am not sure how he got our number but he called us. So we went to meet him and he is this black guy and first he started telling us about how he can see the light of Christ in us and the authority that we have and all this stuff. So I was thinking, "wow, this guy could have some real potential." But then it just got weird. He would not stop talking and he was talking about Jesus and how much he loves him and he started crying and then he was jumping screaming about how he loves Jesus. People would walk by and he would yell at them that he loved them and that Jesus loved them and he started hugging some Muslim guy telling him about the love of Jesus. This went on for about 45 minutes before we could finally leave. It was so weird. He would grab us and tell us he loved us and that Jesus loved us and the work we are doing. It was odd. So that was thursday.
Vendredi (Friday) I had another exchange. Woot! This time it was with the Zone Leaders. So I went with the one Zone Leader to Aix-en-Provence and the other Zone Leader stayed in Marseille. I was totally fine with going to Aix. It is beautiful there!!... And we had a car! But it was such a great day. I went out "Brebis Boarding" for the first time. So we have this sign and stick it out on the sidewelk somewhere and we have a box of copies of The Book of Mormon and we would just give out Book of Mormons to anyone that wanted one. It was really cool and I talked to a lot of people, plenty who weren't interested but had a couple small converstaions with people and then if people would get into the conversation Elder Wilson would come over and help me out... I don't understand a lot. (A brebis is a sheep in French so like the scriptures talk about finding Christ's lost sheep, that's why we call it brebis boarding... that and because the board has a scripture on it about brebis.) After that we went and ate with the Bishop of the ward in Aix and he lives about 30 minutes away from Aix. He had a nice home in this little town, it was really cool. He had three of the most well behaved little children I have ever seen, they were so amazing the entire time and it was even late too. So I had an awesome day in Aix!
Samedi (Saturday) I met back up with my companion around 12:30 and once again, all of our appointments fell through. But we taught some less active members who were really cool.
Dimanche (Sunday) we had church and afterwards a young boy in the ward was baptized. We had one of our investigators come to church and stay for the baptism afterwards. There was also some random guy that came who no one knew who he was. He was at the bus stop where we got off but we didn't even talk to him but he randomly showed up at church. He wasn't wearing any shoes and he had this bag with him and a carton of pineapple juice that he was drinking. His name was Coco and he legitamitly thought he was Jesus. No joke! He even said it. My companion talked to him and apparently he was in a car accident a few years ago and his wife died and he has been a little crazy ever since. That was sad when I heard all that... After church... all of our appointments fell through... go figure, right? Ha! So we basically contacted around. Some crazy lady on the street called me a jeune fil! That means a young girl.... crazy women!!
Aujourd'hi (today) we were going to go to Château d'If like from Count of Monte Cristo but it is closed for refurbishment at least until the middle of November! Darn! But us four from our apartment and the Sœurs went to this Island right by the island with Château d'If on it and it was so cool. I have some pictures that I will send later because the card reading isn't working today but we walked all around and went up to this little castle thing and it was amazing. It was basically as you would picture any island in Greece. It was incredible.... and incredibly windy!
So anyway, that's how my week has been, I hope that you all are doing well. I love you all very much and I am so grateful for your constant support. Au revoir!
Elder Ethan Kirkpatrick
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Pictures!!!
My cute little interruption prevented these from hitting the blog yesterday so enjoy them a little late....what's new? AHHH if only we could enjoy the real thing with him!
Palais Longchamp, not far from Ethan's apartment
Fountain in Toulon
View from Ethan's apartment
The view from Ethan's Apartment
Palais Longchamp, not far from Ethan's apartment
Fountain in Toulon
View from Ethan's apartment
The view from Ethan's Apartment
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